Friday, September 26, 2008

Tim Berners-Lee proposes to assess the "IQ" sites

WWW Founder Tim Berners-Lee announced the creation of a new nonprofit organization, Foundation world of the Internet "(WWW Foundation). There are already existing consortium WWW, who also created with the direct participation of Berners-Lee and that at the moment is the technical development of the World Wide Web - is a protocol, standards, formats, etc. The new fund will not engage in engineering and social problems. The Fund intends to start its activities in January 2009. Already, the project has received sponsorship from the American Foundation for journalistic research Knight Foundation in the amount of $ 5 million



More information about the reasons for establishing a new fund Tim Berners-Lee spoke directly to the meeting with the Knight Foundation, which occurred in mid-September. In his speech, he touched upon all the tasks that he had to decide for the life of the World Wide Web.

Thus, the first problem that was resolved was the need to persuade the leadership of CERN laboratory did not take royaliti for the use of new technology. As Berners-Lee, if they developed in the bowels of the laboratory hypertext system has been paid, no Web now would not exist. The second problem is already in the consortium WWW, had ambitions of large corporations, where each tried to introduce their own exclusive formats that can destroy the integrity of the web infrastructure.

But the old problems behind us, and, according to the founding father WWW, it is time to move from technical issues to humanitarian Research Network. Tim Berners-Lee points to the need for any networking arrangements to help users obtain relevant information and limit slander, manipulation of facts, misinformation, as the recent dissemination of the rumors about the dangers of Greater Hadron Collider.

Tim Berners-Lee said that he "did not consider assigning a simple number as the rate IQ, a good idea, but instead offers reytingovat sites to more complex methods, but, in fact, we are talking about the same, only in other words. That sort of content evaluation system to improve its overall quality - just in terms of semantic content.

On a saying that, in truth, tasks assigned to the new fund, a fairly global. These tasks can not be achieved only at the level of self-Internet community. But if at least some of the goals would be achieved, it will be very successful new fund.

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News for developers

* Working Group, composed of professionals leading software producers, will develop a standard interface Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), which should be similar to SQL for unstructured data. According to the participants in this project, the amount of unstructured information stored in corporate repositories is growing very rapidly, and therefore require special tools to work with such information. To date, to develop a new standard brought representatives of companies Alfresco, EMC, IBM, Microsoft, OpenText, Oracle and SAP.

Company Gurock Software announce SmartInspect 3.1 - an updated version for debugging and monitoring of programs at Delphi,. NET and Java. The new version adds support for new versions of Delphi and C Builder (2009), corrected some mistakes from the previous version.

Microsoft has released a beta version of XNA Game Studio 3.0, the development of games. Journalists from MSMobiles.com noted that "Microsoft re-releases new technology without the support of Windows Mobile, despite the fact that Microsoft originally promised such support." XNA Game Studio 3.0 allows you to create games for Windows and player Zune, using optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on. NET Framework. What's curious, game console Xbox 360 itself is not supported, only the PC and Zune, however, the final release Microsoft promises to add its support.

Also, Microsoft announced the launch Techdays.ru, a new project for developers and other IT professionals. According to Microsoft, now the bulk of seminars TechNet and Developer Days will be held in the online-mode, allowing a greater number of IT professionals and developers to participate in activities.

The company Zend Technologies announced that it will release a beta version of PHP 5.3 in October this year. The new version will be implemented garbage collection in memory, support for names and packaging of PHP-application in the archives, optimized the performance of PHP on the platform of Windows. Also in PHP 5.3 will include various components, including a library for integrating PHP with the DBMS MySQL. According to the developers, PHP 5.2 applications must still works in a PHP 5.3. It also extended support internationalization of applications - the library ICU (International Components for Unicode) will help create a fully multilingual applications. The final version is planned only for the first quarter of 2009

Sun Microsystems Corp. demonstrated an updated version of MySQL. MySQL 5.1 offers advanced features segmentation of tables, two different schemes replication, including progressive (row-based replication), and hybrid replication (hybrid replication); built planner Event Scheduler allows developers and database administrators to automate the most common operations performed on the database server. Tool Upgrade Advisor, is included in the MySQL Enterprise Monitor, notifies administrators about errors that could have a negative impact on the work of MySQL-server. If we find any potential problems, users will receive detailed instructions on how to update the database servers that help to quickly remove identifying the failure. The release of MySQL 5.1 will take place later this quarter.

The company announced the release of Infragistics Infragistics NetAdvantage for JSF 2008 Volume 2 - a new version of a set of components of JavaServer Faces. In the new version to activate cells in the tables WebGrid and navigation systems for these cells can now be used not only the mouse, and keyboard, a new component WebDropDown simplify and speed up the process of entering data and functionality of WebTree expanded to support the technology drag-and-drop. Technology Javascript Event Handling will allow developers to call running on a client script Javascript in response to virtually any user action. Developers Infragistics NetAdvantage for JSF 2008 Volume 2 said that their components comply with the standards of JavaServer Faces 1.2.

The company TMS Software has released a new version of a set of VCL components for the files in Microsoft Excel without the installation of the package Excel'a. In TMS FlexCel Studio for VCL/LCL 3.0 supports RAD Studio 2009 and open environment Lazarus. In addition, the developers have assured that completely reworked FlexCel Designer, which now allows you to construct a form of Excel at all without the use of the original package of MS Excel.

The company EMS Software has released SQL Manager for InterBase/Firebird 5.1 - the new version of tools to administer and develop the database for DBMS InterBase and Firebird.

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IT-industry on the brink of apocalypse

Storm, the last on financial and stock markets of the world, has not yet ended, and all have already made to count losses. But even without accounting calculations show that big business will no longer be like before. The huge international banks and insurance companies, whose credibility of a couple of weeks ago, is today more like discarded on the shore after the shipwreck wrecks.

IT-industry, we must give her all these disturbing days of feeling relatively well. When the stock markets simply rushilis, "highly technological" NASDAQ index also fell - but not so much. And then faster than others occupy the former position.

But now the computer industry nastaet "moment of truth". Yes, IT-industry is not directly dependent on the oil quotations or, say, the index of business activity in the mortgage market. But the computer and telecommunications companies most of its revenue still get (or rather, received) from corporate customers. Now, U.S. banks to think about how they avoid bankruptcy, not a platform manufacturer to install during a planned upgrade computer fleet. His, this update may have never be ...

Sami IT-companies also remain in the wild feelings. " Well, let's say, Apple has always receives its income from retail and personal gadgets. And what orders to make Oracle?

In the sector of the PC manufacturers panic raised Dell, which actively supported manufacturer of industrial components Ingram Micro. Together they speak out about "reducing global demand for IT-products industry." Indeed, over the past month course Dell shares fell more than 30%. In the most concern argue that the current problems - a direct consequence of the fall in consumer demand for new PCs. Profit Dell already in the II quarter of the current fiscal year decreased by 17% to $ 616 million worst-than-expected results showed America, Western Europe and some Asian countries.

Michael Dell, founder and head of the company, personally stated that the situation demands to reduce costs by $ 3 billion annually. This means that in the near future will need to reduce the nearly 9 thousand employees. Later the same corporation Dell will face another restructuring that will include not only the reduction of jobs, but also investments in infrastructure.

The Corporation Hewlett-Packard, in turn, announced a reduction of 25 thousand of its staff in the next three years. This is 7.5% of the total staff, or a 13th member. The reduction will take place during the process of merging with the company Electronic Data Systems - recall, Hewlett-Packard bought it in May this year for $ 13.25 billion Approximately half of laid-off workers will be from the U.S.. This, for the most part, will staff offices EDS, whose services after the merger with Hewlett-Packard were no longer needed.

The guide HP expects that staff reductions will allow annual savings of approximately $ 1.8 billion According to the director Hewlett-Packard Mark Hurd, the company plans a renewed focus on developing software and providing IT-services.

Dismissals will be held in the company's Nvidia, where 360 people lose their jobs, representing 6.5% of staff. In doing so, staff reductions will affect all divisions and the representation of the company. The restructuring should be completed by October, the company reserved its $ 7-10 million

It is fitting to recall that this summer was found marriage supplied by Nvidia videosystems for notebooks. Corporations had to set aside $ 196 million for the replacement of defective parts and warranty service. As a result, II quarter, Nvidia finished with a loss of $ 121 million now, after the announcement of planned reductions in personnel, Nvidia shares traded cheaper by more than 8%.

"Leaks staff are continuing and Yahoo. However, this Internet company for some strange tradition of leaving almost exclusively by top managers. Thus, in mid-September, it became known that from his post will take Amit Kumar, director of product management. In his area of responsibility was the work of service Search Monkey and projects semantic networks Yahoo. Known and new job Amita Kumar: Vice President startups Dapper. Another top manager, decided to withdraw from Yahoo, was the Director of Public Relations Kirsten Hollars.

Semiconductor industry leaders now make predictions at the beginning of next year. And these forecasts are quite bleak. As a result of economic crisis and glut the market products, silicon industry in the I quarter of 2009 is still not out of the deep peak. At least that is how the experts said bank Credit Suisse. The positive momentum from manufacturers of chips seen only in the II quarter of 2009 th. And to date, investment in the semiconductor industry, compared with the year 2007, decreased by 20-30%.

The crisis in the manufacture of semiconductors is well illustrated by an example of Toshiba. She was forced to reduce annual profit forecast and as a cause of its losses indicates falling semiconductor market in general and in particular the decline in the prices of NAND-memory. It is expected that over the next half Toshiba will lose $ 469 million for comparison: in April Toshiba analysts estimated the profits for that period of $ 141 million

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Thursday, September 25, 2008

IT Business leap barriers

As the autumn - normal season intensifying IT-business. But this year, all waiting for the autumn with some nastorozhennostyu. It shows one important thing: how the global financial crisis - Enhanced oil, falling dollar and the recession in the U.S. - will affect (and will affect whether) to the computer and telecommunications industries.


Search Engines: Evolution

In anticipation of the issuance of shares of the company «Yandex» Russian journalists asked for financial analysts to calculate cost-effectiveness of the Internet companies. Was a figure in the 54,7-55,8%. Illustrative time: «Yandex» released only one option for fiscal year 2007 - revenue. According to the company, this figure compared with the 2006-meters rose «roughly double», ie can make $ 167 million According to reporting Ltd. «Yandex», published in «SPARK-Interfax», company revenue in 2007 - $ 172.9 million (4.4 billion rubles.) net profit - $ 64.2 million (1.6 billion rubles.). Let me remind you that this autumn «Yandex» plans to place a high-tech stock exchange Nasdaq 15-20% of its shares. Organizers IPO - Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and «Renaissance Capital». Preliminary assessment of the entire company at $ 5 billion buying the same shares in «Yandex» interests of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.


Help "IT SECTOR":

«Yandex»: Internet company. He speaks portal Yandex.ru with a daily audience of about 6 million people (to TNS Gallup). Shareholders: 30% - the founders, about 20% - managers, more than 30% - Funds Internet Search Investments and Baring Vostok Capital Partners, 15% - Tiger Global Management, 5% reserved under the stock options. For information: in 2006 profitability «Yandex» was 59.4%, that is, for the year it fell by about 3%. This may be due to the increasing number of partners, and thus contributions, analysts say. However, representatives of «Yandex» far refused any comment.

A competitor «Yandex» - the company Mail.ru - profitability above: 64.5%. This is due to the fact that he Mail.ru 68% of revenue comes from sales of banner advertising. «Yandex» is shared with partners, revenues from contextual advertising, which brings it to 80% of the proceeds. The profitability of the Rambler in 2007 was 11% in I quarter of 2008 th - 18-20%. Do Google - 35,9%.

By the way, about «Rambler». Holding Rambler Media withdrew financial director Artur Akopyan. This is when it has become a profitable company, but at the same time, and rid itself of its two major assets - Rambler TV channel and contextual advertising «Begun». Already aware that Akopyan become one of the top managers of Global Technology Fund (GTF), close to Eventis Telecom. Akopyan, who had worked since 2005 in «Sinterre», became findirektorom Rambler year and a half ago. He came in the Rambler with a new management team of Mark Opzumera, who replaced Irina Gofman's director. In 2007 the first Rambler finished the first 12 months, with net profit (largely due to the sale of Rambler TV for $ 23 million in the first half). The yield holding at 4.75 times increased to $ 7.6 million, $ 7.1 million of which was received in the II half of the year. But we can not say that the improved financial situation Rambler relates only to Akopyanom - this whole team credit, analysts emphasize. Over the past year, Rambler also received control over «runners», and at the end of July to agree on the resale of Google. Operating profit from the transaction will be approximately $ 50 million, that 2.7 times that invested in «Begun» amount. From a financial point of view of selling «Begun» benefit, but so far unclear how it will affect the revenue Rambler in the future - the system works in the growing market of contextual advertising reduplicative is not the first year in a row. According to the consulting agency Mindshare Interaction, in 2007, this market in Russia has doubled and increased to $ 210 million Rambler Revenues from contextual advertising will «grow faster», said after the deal Akopyan, the company «will specialize in a vertical or topical search».


Corporations and figures

According to data provided in the financial report of Hewlett-Packard for the III quarter of 2008 (ended on 31 July), the overall HP revenue grew by 10% compared to last year's indicators and a $ 28 billion net profit also increased by 14% and reached $ 2 billion These financial results exceeded expectations of analysts, forecast earnings at only $ 27.4 billion because of the possible impact of the economic crisis on the sale of the company. According to HP, repay negative from lower purchasing activity in the United States and Western Europe succeeded thanks to the growth of revenue from activities in developing markets, increase sales of laptops and the constant improvement of business solutions and products to be scanned and printed. Indeed, sales of notebook companies for the quarter increased by 26%, while desktops - only 6%. Income from operations for the same markets of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) increased by 24% compared with last year. In their forecasts for IV quarter of fiscal year (ending 31 October) analysts the company is also optimistic laid plans of $ 30.2 to $ 30.3 billion of revenue. Mark Hurd, chairman of the board of Hewlett-Packard, told reporters: «Our global situation, a wide range of products and services and growing opportunities to reduce cost of production give us confidence in the continuation of significant revenue growth in the future».

The market for memory ICs emerged a paradoxical situation: the flash memory market for NAND-type susceptible to a significant decline because of overproduction. But over time there is a need for ten new giant factories to the production could keep up with the growing demand for NAND - well, at least, argues SanDisk CEO Eli Harari. Quote: «Our industry is experiencing a time of testing. Industry is not healthy ». Indeed, the production and marketing of flash memory has been about two and a half years have experienced a rapid drop in prices. The situation resulted from a significant excess of production over consumption. It is estimated that the proposal exceeds demand by about 10%, which prints the majority of suppliers in the «red zone». For comparison: suppliers of DRAM, which are also experiencing is not the best of times, faced with an excess of supply over demand at only 1-2%. According to Harari, the market is waiting for the applications that will raise the demand. Examples of areas of potential growth is the expansion cards, mobile devices, solid state drives. For the industry to respond to the expected transition to the ascending part of the curve and meet the needs of new applications, to assess Harare, will take another ten «megafabrik» to produce NAND.

According to projections organization SEMI - «sectoral trade union» of companies - manufacturers of semiconductors - updated every six months, sales of equipment for semiconductor manufacturing in Europe on the basis of 2008 will grow to $ 2.53 billion in the next year, the market should grow another 3.6 % To reach $ 2.62 billion market for materials for the production of semiconductors will grow and will reach close to this year's $ 4 billion will recall that the main drivers of growth in world semiconductor market experts believe the development of technology in emerging markets and growth in output PCs and mobile phones.

British online advertising in 2007 surpassed the volume television (broadcasting), capturing 19% of the market. According to the telecommunications regulatory body Ofcom, last year in the UK spending on online advertising grew by 40% - up to 2.8 billion pounds. The percentage of cable television is declining is not the first year. If in 2002 it accounted for 83% of advertising expenditure, the 2007-meters - just 67%. Thus, last year on advertising in television lasted a little more than 2.3 billion pounds. In general, for all types of television in Britain spent 3.5 billion pounds, as in the year before last. This amount includes a digital TV channels, which account for up to one third of the advertising revenue. From 2002 to 2007 being conducted by the British before a computer screen, grew by 4 times - up to 24 minutes a day. A mobile phone Britons said twice more.


AMD Restructuring

Sensation came the news that the company AMD is exploring the possibility of split into two companies. If that happens, the first part will develop chips and the second - their production. It is anticipated that this will revert to the profits that the manufacturer does not receive from the end of 2006. The official separation announcement is expected in the current September. No easy task to split into two companies AMD, according to some data, charged the former director of AMD Hector Ruiz, in July lost their position, but nevertheless remaining in the position of chairman of the board of directors. According to the «informed sources», the company will be divided into two parts: first, the main part, led by new CEO Dirk Meijer, nominated for a seat Ruiz, will develop semiconductor technologies, the second focus in the production of processors. Both companies are closely linked. It is stated that all the most important decisions on this issue have already been taken. Dividing the company will be implemented in strategies Asset Light and Asset Smart, led by Ruiz. But, nevertheless, the future role of Hector Ruiz, AMD, prorated for eight years, remains unclear. Perhaps it will take a decision-making positions - for example, will be CEO of productive units. The marketing team is trying to focus the company on merit Ruiz and get rid of possible associations, that supposedly he led the company to the situation in which it currently is. According to the company Lehman Brothers analyst Tim Luke, the strategy of Asset Smart companies have already yielded significant results. This he described himself a former CEO. Perhaps the manufacturer of microchips able to get the restructuring scheme without the involvement of additional capital - for example, through the sale of equipment. We know that AMD has already rid itself of equipment from its plant in Germany, selling its Russian concern «Angstrom», which has attracted for this purpose loan of 815 million euros. According to the research agency iSuppli in 2007, the company AMD took a 11 th place in the ranking of the largest manufacturers of chips. Its share in the world market for microprocessors is 13% - this is 6 times less than the shares of Intel. Net losses AMD in the II quarter of this year totaled $ 1.19 billion in revenues the company increased by $ 40 million compared to the year 2007 and totaled $ 1.35 billion


Cases game

At the end of the review, as usual, talk about the market of computer games. The Corporation Electronic Arts has not renew its offer to buy the company Take-Two. Now the company will not publicly discuss the merger, and during private talks. I recall that Electronic Arts offered for Take-Two $ 2 billion of Electronic Arts said that was no longer believe in the beneficial integration of Take-Two before the festive season. Following the decision of EA shares of Take-Two fell to $ 23.38 apiece. Leadership Take-Two Electronic Arts intends to submit a timetable for release of new products and financial projections for three years in advance. Earlier, Take-Two has repeatedly rejected the proposal by Electronic Arts, saying that she appreciated the company too low. The first public offer to purchase the creators of Grand Theft Auto Corporation Electronic Arts has made at the end of February 2007, after which several times extended the offer.

The company Flagship Studios, created action / RPG called Hellgate: London, is closed. Chief Operating Officer and one of the founders of the company Max Scheffer said that at the moment of any formulation of speech is not. Flagship Studios is now practically not functioning - only to have the leadership to bring up unfinished business. Scheffer also added that earlier, none of the leaders are not confronted with the need to close the company. This may explain the fact that, until the very last moment the situation with Flagship Studios has remained unclear. I'll add that in early August Max Sheffer and Travis Baldri announced a reorganization of units Flagship Seattle, after which a new independent company Runic Games. Flagship Studio was founded in 2003 by former members of Blizzard Entertainment, who worked on the series Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. The post of President of the new company took Bill Roper. Information that Flagship Studios have begun to leave the staff, appeared in early June this year. Leadership has long denied these rumors, but in July the company confirmed them. Soon it was closed beta testing multiplayer online game Mythos, and Hellgate: London has disappeared opportunity to register new subscribers. Above Mythos worked developers of the unit Flagship Seattle, but Travis Baldri noted that the studio, renamed the Runic Games, is unlikely to continue to work on this project.

IT-industry: the readiness of the entire

Pass last summer days. That is about to come autumn, and with it - and the long-awaited revitalization of the entire global IT-business. But then, perhaps, is to warn against excessive optimism. Analysts company Gartner noted that the weakening global economy soon may force consumers to buy fewer electronics. In the coming months, expect widespread decline in sales of computer equipment that quickly affects the producer of microchips. Until this year, sales of PCs and mobile phones stood at a high level thanks to emerging markets (China, India, Russia, South America) that the fuel industry. But Gartner believes that soon, and in these countries will be felt the impact of the global economic crisis.

In March this year, experts Gartner forecast changed the overall production of chips, taking into account the decline in prices for memory and the deterioration of the global economy. Thus, if a previously expected increase in annual profits in the IT-industry stood at 6.2%, whereas now it has fallen to 3.4% ($ 278.4 billion). According to forecasts Gartner, improvements in the industry should not wait before the second half of next year.


Smart passion

One of the most remarkable events of this summer was the revitalization of the two largest producers of processors - AMD and Intel. Both companies sought to consolidate its position in the market. However, a number of failures by the leadership of AMD, led to a weakening market position of the manufacturer. One of those mistakes has been the acquisition of ATI, eventually turning to AMD large losses. Nevertheless, the company does not intend to give up: Now AMD is making serious efforts in trying to remain competitive. In July the company was headed by Dirk Meyer, who succeeded as general director Hector Ruiz.

Now the company plans to reorganize production, but still kept secret. Do not forget AMD and its «direct responsibilities», while continuing to replenish its range of new products: last month were released three new quad processor Phenom X4. For this activity AMD followed strong growth position the company in the ranking: 20 th place, she moved to fifth. AMD competitor Intel, in the person also did not waste time. In the rating of proposals corporation was able to deprive the company Apple second place which is occupied for several months. After 40 years after the founding of the Intel case is excellent. To verify this, just look at the financial performance of the corporation for the II quarter of this year. In July Intel introduced the Intel Centrino 2 platform, which immediately attracted the leading manufacturers of notebook PCs. In addition, in the near future, the corporation intends to release to the market a number of promising products, including - dual-core processor Intel Atom, chips in the microarchitecture Nehalem, as well as video Larrabee. According to Steysi Smith, financial director of Intel, earnings for the quarter range from $ 10 to $ 10.6 billion (In doing so, according to Reuters Estimates, analysts predict Intel revenue in the III quarter at roughly $ 10.3 billion) Commenting on its forecast, Smith said that Intel has shown good performance during the year even though the economic slowdown has affected not only the U.S. but also Western Europe. The main reason for good performance Intel, according to Smith - the timely entry into the market of processors for mobile devices - in particular the issue of chip Atom, designed for use in low-cost gadgets and laptops. Now the development of sales Atom is becoming a priority goal in a slowdown of the world PC market. Quote: «Atom has become very good acceleration at the start, exceeding our expectations at the beginning of the year. The product fits perfectly into a modern prosperous state is not the American economy in which consumers pay more attention to low-cost device.

However, according to findirektora Intel, the company intends to establish exactly how and where the market is needed Atom, only in the next six months. In the meantime, it is assumed that the processor is well suited for use in mobile devices in emerging markets, as well as for people who want to be the second low-cost PCs in addition to the core. Along with AMD and Intel demonstrated a positive trend and other producers of computer equipment. For example, the company closed the first ten Dell, Toshiba and Nvidia divided between the 13th row, and Lenovo took 17 th place.


Incidentally, the Lenovo

According to quarterly reports of Lenovo, net profit in the II quarter of this year reached $ 110 million - a 65% increase over the same period last year, when profit was $ 66.84 million These figures surpassed the expectations of most analysts, forecast profit of $ 107 , 47 million Nevertheless, the total income in the II quarter increased by only 10% and amounted to $ 4.2 billion According to the company on quarterly financial performance crisis has affected the American economy and an earthquake in China. The structure of sales of Lenovo may be the one hand, the slowdown in sales of desktops, which amounted to only 3% (up to $ 1.7 billion), and strengthening the position of notebook PCs, sales growth which reached 17% (up to $ 2.4 billion). Now the share of notebook PCs accounted for 57% of sales. In the regional division showed the best performance of China, where sales growth was 22% (up to $ 1.7 billion). In the U.S., has sold products to $ 1.1 billion in Europe, Africa and the Middle East - at $ 904 million, while in Asia (excluding China) - at $ 497 million as stated by representatives of Lenovo, commenting on the results of the work in the II quarter, the company special attention to the Olympic Games in Beijing, where she is an official sponsor. According to plans, the fourth in the world PC manufacturer, Olympic marketing activities should make it a globally recognizable brand.


Via changing specialization

One of the few producers of alternative chipset - the company Via - will not produce a platform for third-party processors and plans to concentrate instead on the release of its own processor platform to x86. Vice President Richard Brown, Via said in this regard: «One of the main reasons why we decided to fully engage x86, is that, we estimate that business to produce chipsets for third-party processor is dead». As examples, Brown led the company to Intel and AMD, which themselves produce chipsets for its processors. Intel has reached what is now nearly all of its processors provided with its own chipsets. With the acquisition of ATI Technologies in 2006, AMD is approaching a similar scenario.

Rumors that Via is considering withdrawal from the business of manufacturing chipsets, there was still last autumn, when the publication DigiTimes reported the resignation of President and Chief Executive unit Via to develop platforms Cheveya Lin, together with the company, left the team of 40 specialists. Later they joined the ASMedia Technology - an affiliate Taiwan Asustek Computer. Among the reasons for departure cited fierce competition from Intel and AMD, as well as the uncertain future line of chipsets. Relations between Via and the world's largest manufacturer of processors Intel has always left wanting. Thus, in 2001, Via released a chipset Apollo P4X266, which had the support of DDR memory and a Pentium 4. However, it is necessary license from Intel for formulation of the chipset was not available. Fear of getting out of favor Intel, manufacturers of motherboards have to produce products based Apollo is not under his own name and under the name Via. Today the company is Via the five largest producers of system logic, which also includes Intel, AMD, Nvidia and SiS. Asked whether the company was able to improve relations with Intel, Richard Brown replied as follows: «Our company and Intel are direct competitors in the very difficult market. Nonetheless, we respect the Intel as our opponent and as the company has made an enormous contribution to the development of industry PCs ». I recall that in early August there were rumors that went out of business chipset company Nvidia. However, this information was immediately overcome its officials, who said that out of this segment does not make sense, because the position of Nvidia it strong as ever.


Personnel who decide everything

Workers at IBM plants in the state of Vermont expects a 10 per cent decline in wages at the beginning of next year. Jeff Tell, a representative of IBM in Vermont, said that the company ceases to pay 20 per cent premium working 12-hour shifts. These measures affect about 3500 workers assembly line. To compensate for the abolition of bonuses, IBM plans to implement a single 10-per cent increase in basic rates. IBM plants in the state of Vermont produces processors for cellular phones, DVD-players and other consumer electronics, as well as specific processors for the game console. The company also intends to lower wages for some $ 120 administrative employees. Working night shifts will continue to receive bonuses of 12.5%. Thus, the measures taken by the leadership of the company, a different impact on individual staff members. The representative of IBM, competing companies do not pay bonuses to their workers. Jeff Tell also said that the aim of the planned IBM measures is to reduce costs and remain competitive.

Sanjay Jakarta, the new head of the mobile units of Motorola, intends to take a key strategy for the company's solutions for just 90 days. According to him, for the three-month period will be subjected to thorough rethinking of mobile platforms, and Motorola plans to manufacture cellular phones. Jakarta also intend to invite the new top managers to oversee areas of responsibility in which he personally did not have enough experience. I recall that, until recently, Sanjay worked Jakarta Administrative Director of Qualcomm. Observers suggest that many top managers will peremaneny it from there.


This amazing Russian IT-market

According to company IDC, in 2007 the Russian market for integrated systems management (ISUP) grew by 58.7% to $ 579 million, this figure almost double the average growth rate of Russian IT-market. According to analyst IDC software Petra Gorodetskogo, end-users to fully appreciate the importance of ISUP as a key tool for optimizing business processes and enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises. «A providers and their partners were able to offer customers the best choice including solutions for individual business segments and industries», - explained the expert. It seems that the needs of enterprises is not only to acquire tools to extract information - for them relevant and appropriate financial reporting requirements of domestic law. That's why the market share of the budget and regularly updated products «1C» has been steadily increasing. And if, in 2005-2006, growth in market presence «1C» took place by reducing the share of Microsoft, in 2007, the «victim» proved corporation Oracle. Her representative explains what is happening on a small number of potential customers «heavy» ERP-systems. It's no secret that many Russian enterprises, including major industrial, in the absence of free funds are forced to be satisfied with the products easier class. «Rich heavyweight» are still companies with a continuous production cycle, specializing in the processing of raw materials including oil, as well as retailer, «Energy». Since the introduction of «1C» does not weigh heavily on corporate budgets, to automate the company began small and medium-sized businesses. This is truly a «bonanza». According to Deputy Director of corporate management systems company IBS Alexandre Saksina, the success of SAP is primarily the result of a corporation that is sensitive to a segment of the SME. According to IDC, in the SMB market in Russia SAP has received more than 30% of their income. It seems that Oracle policy in this regard inadequate. Specialists IDC believes that the Russian market ERP-systems in the next five years will grow by an average of 35% annually. The cost of automated systems in the retail and wholesale trade, energy, health, education and government will grow ahead of market dynamics.

Shares of major suppliers of ERP-systems in the Russian market (%)


200520062007
SAP39,74549,6
Oracle21,71814,9
«1Π‘»9,71214,4
Microsoft9,487,8


Source: IDC.


Apple Mac vs. Windows PC

An interesting statistics published by NPD Group. According to her figures, the average price of your Mac twice higher than the average Windows PC. While the average price of Windows-notebook dropped from $ 877 in June 2006 to $ 700 now, the average price of mobile PCs Apple is still about $ 1500, dropping over the past two years at $ 59. Desktops Mac is now sold in an average of $ 1000, while the typical Windows PC costs about $ 550. Of course, all these prices without taking into account the specifications of computers are only statistical interest rather typical configuration Mac and PC differed so much that they try to compare quite difficult. This is what is remarkable: despite the much greater difference in price, market share Apple has continued to grow, according to Gartner, currently at 8.5%. The main reason for the growth analysts believe Vista problems and lack of proper marketing response from Microsoft, which prompted buyers to part with a large sum of money in order to avoid meeting with the new Windows. Nevertheless, Apple is not sitting idly by, experts believe. The new marketing initiative by Microsoft, Apple decides to respond to a series of rollers Get A Mac, could bring slower growth of sales of products labeled with nadkushennogo apple. However, in Cupertino, it seems, this has long been ready: this could speak, announced in July the company reduce its gross margin from 35% to 30% - and with continued cost it can only report on lowering retail prices. Calculations show that if Apple is going to continue to increase its market share, or at least freeze it at 8.5%, prices would have to go down.

The market for mobile phones reformat

The research company Gartner released its medium-term outlook of the market mobile phones. According to analysts Gartner, before the end of 2009 the market of mobile phones, a number of new players, while the market will take only a few frank outsiders. Most manufacturers will actively promote the services of data transmission and value-added services, and the devices become easier to use with the old functionality. It is the greatest sales growth will occur in developing countries, while in Western Europe and Japan will begin declining, while in the U.S. - a long period of stagnation. Gartner experts have identified five key trends in the industry of mobile phones by the end of 2009 th.

First of all, the market of cellular devices will new players - for example, a manufacturer of GPS-navigators Garmin - the company postponed the release of its first phone with the IV quarter of 2008 th next year. The emergence of new producers in a fairly competitive market driven by the expansion and diversity of ready platforms. Secondly, pressure from operators seeking to lower prices for mobile phones, will force manufacturers to seek new sources of income, for example, from the sale of content and other services. On this path have already Nokia with its service Ovi, Sony Ericsson with PlayNow and Apple with iTunes. Similar projects are preparing to launch a number of manufacturing companies - for example, Motorola. In the future, according to experts, business links between manufacturers of phones and smartphones, cellular operators and content providers will be much stronger and more diverse in their points of convergence, new business models. Another important trend in 2009 - cellular phones (unless, of course, the word «phone» still can be applied to these devices) will become less complicated to use. The growing importance will play a mobile design and style, while the differences in functionality will become less visible. Manufacturing companies will design and implementation especially those new technologies that will reduce the price variation of design. For example, the expected conclusion of new agreements with the world's elite brands of accessories and sportswear - and, what features are not jokes, and can reach up to use food and automobile brands. Pepsi-phone and phone-style Jaguar today may cause a smile, but do not forget how quickly changing world around us. Co-products, manufacturers of mobile phones could increase the attractiveness of their vehicles in the eyes of consumers. Finally, the life cycle of high-tech phones will grow: it will be possible to download software updates, new copyright management (DRM), applications and services, multimedia files - all for the appliance to remain current as long as possible.

With regard to statistical projections of Gartner, then, on the basis of 2008 in the world to be sold 1.28 billion cell phones that by 11% compared to 1.15 billion vehicles sold last year. In I quarter of this year in the world were sold 294.3 million mobile phones. According to preliminary calculations, in the II quarter (April-June) in retail sales and in offices operators sent 300 - 305 million mobile phones. Leading Gartner analyst Carolina Milanezi said: «In III quarter sales growth to continue, but would be irrelevant because the company Motorola and LG have already warned of the quarterly decline in sales. In addition, remains challenging and economic situation. All hope lies at the end of the year when producers phones will be provided the largest share of new products. In addition, the increase in sales in the IV quarter should affect the seasonal factor ». However, sales growth will be achieved primarily by developing countries, countries in Eastern Europe, Russia (CIS) and Latin America. At the same time, in regions such as Western Europe, Japan and North America, the market has reached saturation point. According to analysts, the Asia-Pacific region in 2008 will be sold 472.5 million mobile devices that will be at the 17.9% increase over last year. In Western Europe, will be sold approximately 188 million phones - a 1.5% lower than the 2007-meters. Sales volume in North America amounted to 185.7 million units, which will give 5.3 percent for the year. At the same time, Japan will be sold 47.7 million vehicles, a country rising sun from last year will show 9.1-percent decline in sales of mobile phones.

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Intrigue QIP

Any good PR Specialist you will say: if the information needed excuse, any intrigue can unleash literally on level ground. That's what seems to have been the company «RBC» (RBC) in an effort to make public the fact that among its assets to add popular among Russian users of Internet-pager QIP.

I recall that QIP is considered one of the most common in post-Soviet space programs for instant messaging. QIP is 100% compatible with ICQ, as passed on a protocol Oscar - is proprietary protocol, developed by Israeli company Mirabilis - the creator of the program ICQ. The main difference between QIP official ICQ-client is the lack of advertising - is considered an advantage, and most users of the program. Plus, of course, given the absolute «bezglyuchnost» and stability combined with ease of use. It should be recalled that the developer of ICQ (and at the same time and the ideology of Internet pagers) company Mirabilis few years ago was acquired by telecommunications giant AOL and converted into a company ICQ Ltd. Since then, it was AOL owns all rights to technology Mirabilis, its commercial design and protocol Oscar, which enjoys a majority of the 66 known instant messaging. According to several sources, QIP regularly uses about half Runet users. However, credit rating services give slightly different figures. According to the company ComScore, at the beginning of this year's service QIP enjoyed 26.6% audience Runet. That figure has messenger ninth place in the ranking of ComScore. Nevertheless, analyst investment company «Finam» Leonid Delitsyn sure that QIP - still the most popular ICQ-client in Russia. In his view, this program uses 40% of Russian Internet users, and the placement of advertising could bring a year of not less than $1 million a matter of fact, until recently the exclusive partner of ICQ Ltd. in Russia was the Rambler, but in May a term partnership agreement. According to Leonid Delitsyn, RBC media could become - or at least try to become - a partner AOL. Possession of one of the most popular in runet Internet pagers would greatly increase the chances of success of RBC. With regard to the market value of QIP, it Delitsyn evaluates its $3 - $5 million, and most other experts - in «several million dollars».

And so PR-started preparations for the monetization of QIP. In late July, a well-known Russian newspaper «Official» first published information about the Internet connection, pager QIP and RBC. I note only that the potential for disseminating such information originated as early as last year, when it became clear that the domain name is registered to a company Qip.ru Valento Commerce, and she, in turn, tightly linked to the RBC. In addition, according to the organization ICANN, the company Valento Commerce has an entertainment resource fishki.net. The publication «Vebplaneta» then quite dramatically the past about this, saying that QIP, in fact, the «parasite ICQ», as it uses the protocol and the subscriber base. Meanwhile, the protocol remains officially closed (proprietary). This means that for serious business owner QIP is required to conclude an agreement with AOL - only this agreement will make it possible to use the protocol Oscar for commercial purposes. It turns out that the direct purchase of QIP provided RBC unprofitable because of high royalties to AOL. Then the mechanism was implemented «incubator» in the form of third-party offshore company - the very Valento Commerce, as reported and the «Official». However proveryavshim this information to the journalists could not find any mention of Valento in describing the structure of the holding or in a presentation to investors. It turns out that the fact that buying «Rosbizneskonsaltingom» company Valento Commerce, which was discussed in the previous year, or eventually failed, or simply is not confirmed. However, owners of the QIP any comments about his relationship with the holding company while RBC refused.


Information:

OAO «RBC Information Systems» - Russian media. He speaks the same Internet portal, news, magazines, newspapers, TV and other assets. Financial indicators (2007): revenues - $193 million, EBITDA - $24 - $26 million Capitalization (at 28 July 2008) - $1.05 billion Major shareholders (as of 1 January 2008): German Kaplun (9, 22%), Alexander Morgulchik (8.9%), Dmitry Belik (8.8%). For the first time Valento Commerce has joined the list of companies affiliated with RBC in April 2007. Of the reports of RBC should: Valento was bought 27 Oct, 2006 - the first Cypriot company RBC Investments, RBC owned by the owners. But in May 2007, Director-General RBC Rovenskiy Yuri said that the deal to buy Valento did not take place, although it was planned - «signed a contract of intent acquisition». Of the subsequent lists companies affiliated with RBC Valento disappeared and appeared only in July this year already.

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Quiet preparations for the stormy autumn in IT

Even the most dramatic events often end without any noise and even more so without too much sensationalism. Since early spring, we witnessed the confrontation Internet companies Yahoo and Google with one hand and Microsoft in the company's odioznym billionaire investor Carl ICANN - on the other. Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo, or at least its search engine to increase its ryvkom little to date market share of Internet advertising. Yahoo, through its top managers desperately resisted. Google with its rejection of the organic business model Microsoft has actively supported Yahoo. Karl Ikan, though, and was the largest shareholder of Yahoo, stood on the side of software giant, with its own business interests. Passions Kipelov and should have reached the highest point on 1 August, at a key meeting of shareholders of Yahoo.

Even in mid-May, Karl Ikan, representing a group of investors and controls nearly 5% Yahoo, promised change at the annual shareholders' meeting of the Board of Directors, which opposes negotiations for the sale of Internet companies corporation Microsoft. But in late July Ikan and guidance to all Yahoo unexpectedly reached an agreement. ICANN was allowed to enter the board of directors expanded to eleven members, and he, in turn, agreed not to vote against the current leadership of the company. Other major holders of shares of Yahoo also supported the chairman of the board of directors Roy Bostoka and Chief Executive Jerry Yang. The conflict ugas itself.

Overall, the meeting on 1 August came all one and a half, hundreds of shareholders, who together have voted for the current directors. Absolutely all the candidates have retained their posts, having received the support of at least 78% of the vote each. But the main result in another: Microsoft is simply "prokinuli", and under the loud cries of happy world of Internet community. For Redmond is, of course, a strong blow to the reputation - not by chance as Steve Ballmer has dismissed the top manager responsible for the deal with Yahoo.

And in China from 1 August this year, came into force first in the history of that country's Antimonopoly Act. And a number of Chinese IT companies have already thinks about the claims against Microsoft. Thus, the representative of Evermore Software announced the publication of First Financial Daily, that his company gathers evidence monopolistskih action Microsoft for further proceedings. In his view, these actions are harmful to the interests of Evermore Software and restrict the activities of Chinese software developers. Such a trial could be a signal to other global corporations that, in terms of antitrust law, behave in the Chinese market is mixed.

Other Chinese companies engaged in developing software, including Kingsoft, also stated intentions to use the new antitrust law to deal with Microsoft. However, some of these companies do not take into account that for years they receive grants from the Chinese government, which puts them in a more advantageous terms in relation to foreign competitors. But the most important thing is that a large part on Microsoft, used in China to buy illegally. So, it may turn out that the Chinese pirates, not Microsoft, are working on the creation of monopolies in China.

Now let's talk about semiconductors - "flesh" IT-infrastructure. According to the main trade unions Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide sales of semiconductors in the I half of this year rose to $ 127.5 billion, which is $ 6.5 billion or 5.4% more than during the same period of 2007. Nevertheless, the situation in the II quarter was far from perfect - sales growth of 3%, while that of semiconductors were sold at $ 64.7 billion In doing so, June 8-percent growth to $ 21.6 billion was higher in May, when sales grew by 7.5% to $ 21.5 billion

According to SIA President George Skalisa, two pillars of growth in sales of semiconductors - "acceleration" of technology in emerging markets and growth in output PCs and mobile devices. Quote: "The development of the middle class in China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America blocked the effects of economic recession in the U.S.. The increase in sales of PCs in developing countries this year to draw up 19% - twice more than in developed markets. " Also, according to Skalisa, growth in output PCs, which accounted for 40% of the world's consumption of semiconductors and mobile phones (20%) was the key to increase the industry to grow sales in these areas no less than 10%. Incidentally, the mobile. According to ABI Research, in the II quarter of the world has sold 301 million mobile phones. At the end of the year, according to research company, the market will be 1 billion 300 million devices - 13% higher than a year earlier. The distribution market, according to ABI, happened to read. The company Nokia surpassed mark of 40% recorded in the share of 40.3%. In second place was Samsung c 15,2%. Motorola only a tenth of per cent ahead of LG (9,3% and 9.2% respectively). Sony Ericsson controls 8.3%. Easy to calculate that, having received only a few per cent of the market, the company Nokia will control a large segment than all four first-tier manufacturers combined. All other company took on the outcome II quarter of 17.7% of the market.

Qualcomm President Sanjay Jakarta will be the new general co-director of the production of cell phones Motorola. He will manage the unit together with the head of Motorola Greg Brown. 45-year-old Jakarta will lead the unit, whose losses since the beginning of 2007 amounted to $ 1.9 billion

Let me remind you that Motorola plans to allocate loss-making unit into a separate company in 2009. Earlier this sought one of the shareholders of the company, already mentioned in this article Karl Ikan, which filed for that even the leadership of Motorola in court. As expected, after the mobile unit will be an independent company, Greg Brown and Sanjay Jakarta will remain its general director.

Sales of mobile units of Motorola fell steadily over the past year and a half, and the company has ceded much of its market share of mobile phone competitors. In 2007, Motorola fell by sales of phones from second to third place. The second was the South Korean company Samsung.

A German group Siemens signed an agreement to sell his unit for the production of radios company Arques Industries. After completion of the transaction with Siemens will not remain a single asset in the telecommunications business. Under the terms of the agreement Arques Industries will acquire 80.2% stake in Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHO), which produces wireless radiotelephones standard DECT. No other details of the transaction have not yet been reported. In 2100 unit working people and on the end of 2007 the sale of units amounted to 792 million euros. I recall that in 2005, Siemens has sold its production of cellular phones Taiwan competitor for BenQ 350 million euros. Under the terms of the deal, BenQ will produce mobile phones under the brand BenQ-Siemens until 2010.

The Corporation Alcatel-Lucent start searching for new leaders. Manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, lishivshiysya recently chairman of the board and CEO, has already received a first denial - the former director of BT Group Ben Vervaayena. Search leaders engaged hedhantingovaya company Korn / Ferry International. Rather, candidates will be looking at the side; also possible that the posts of director and chairman of the board of directors will be merged and placed one head.

Potential candidates for key positions in Alcatel-Lucent, people familiar with the situation, called Thierry Breton, former finance minister of France and former director as France Telecom, Philippe Germont, director of French company Atos Origin, specializing in information technology, and Stephen Burke, director Operating income U.S. cable operator Comcast. The company AOL announced the acquisition startups Socialthing, founded in late 2005. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Socialthing is agregatsionnym service and now works in beta. It is expected that the main competitor of the project will be popular FriendFeed.

But for most AOL occurred troubled times. The company Time Warner is ready to sell it to AOL, separate platform online advertising sites and the business of providing Internet access services. Leaders of Time Warner believed that if the sale of AOL in parts they will be able to help out the company for a large sum. It is expected that during the two entity AOL Time Warner will receive $ 10 billion, analysts also point out that the real price of units online service AOL, according to the price of shares of Time Warner, now is the amount of $ 3 billion to $ 4 billion Among the most likely buyers are called AOL and Yahoo Microsoft.

Google is leaving Richard Kimber, managing director of sales and operations in Southeast Asia. Kimber will be the new executive director of the social network Friendster. Earlier in March this year, the social network Facebook hired to work Sheril Sandberg, the former vice president of global online sales and operations of Google.

And Google itself will soon start advertising in games. The system, called AdSense for Games will be introduced in the video game world. What publishers will take advantage of the new system has not yet reported. It is anticipated that appropriate technology has developed an advertising firm Adscape, which Google bought for $ 23 million in February 2007 th.

According to analysts The Yankee Group, the market game advertising by 2011 will rise to $ 971.3 million It already operating companies such as Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, MochiMedia, NeoEdge Networks and Massive Incorporated. The latter belongs to Microsoft. Google is not the first time trying to expand its ad network beyond the Internet. In December 2005, the company conducted an experiment on placing ads in American publications. By mid-2006, the experiment was deemed a failure by Google draft year. In addition, Google recently announced the acquisition startups Omnisio, which was launched in March this year. According to the publication of TechCrunch, Google paid for Omnisio worth about $ 15 million Omnisio allows users to create annotations to videos and clips as well as synchronize presentation of the service Slideshare video. It is expected that Omnisio technology will be integrated into popular Video YouTube.

The popular social network MySpace has appointed five new top managers. That Manu Tapar, senior vice president of engineering, Angela Cortina, senior vice president of marketing, Tish Vitkraft, senior vice president of Client Services, Jason Oberfest, Vice President of Business Development and Eyb Thomas, vice president of online Marketing.

In 2010, global market share videodiskov follows: 60% will be owned by DVD and 40% - Blu-ray. After another year of the sale of CDs format Blu-ray equal and will bypass sales drives the previous generation. These are the results of a study of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

By the end of 2007 th at BD (Blu-ray Disc) sold every tenth film. In the middle of this year - one in five, and by the end of 2008 for the first Blu-ray discs will be sold each quarter kinolenta. The increase in the popularity of Blu-ray-holders in connection with the output in this format more and more movies.

According to analysts, in 2007 the percentage of Blu-ray players in the market amounted to 7-10%, while the 2008-m share the format will grow by 15%. From January to June sales of a new generation of players has increased fourfold in the U.S. and six in Europe, compared with the same period last year. To date, Blu-ray more than 650 films.

Sony Corp. is investing in expanding production of lithium-ion batteries about $ 371 million goal of these investments - doubling the number of manufactured batteries. It is anticipated that the 2010 fiscal year, Sony will produce 74 million lithium-ion batteries every month. Now the company produces 41 million batteries a month.

Previously, the company Panasonic has also announced plans to build a new factory for the manufacture of batteries. Panasonic Investment in the project is $ 928 million as a result of the company intends to triple output of batteries, reached a mark of 75 million batteries a month. And in July this year, the company Sanyo announced its intention to invest in their businesses for the production of batteries $ 1.2 billion over three fiscal years. As a result, the company expects to increase the output of batteries from the current 70 million a month to $ 90 million

Microsoft Corporation will reduce the price of gaming console Xbox 360 in early September, reported online edition of Ars Technica, with reference to their source. According to new information, a model of Xbox 360 Arcade, which is sold without the HDD, podesheveet immediately at $ 80. Today, residents of North America, this version of the console costs $ 279.99, while next month the price drop to $ 199.

The new model Xbox 360 with hard drive for 60 GB, which should be available for sale in the U.S. and Canada in early August, will cost not $ 349.99 and $ 299. Now $ 299 is the standard version of the console with a 20 GB drive. Soon, she disappears from the counters of shops, but it will replace 60-gigabyte model.

The price of the most expensive version, Xbox 360 Elite, which completed the hard disk drive at 120 GB, will fall to $ 399. Now for the console Americans have to pay $ 449.99. It also reported that in the IV quarter of this year, close to the Christmas holidays, Microsoft will release several special packages, in which, in addition to most stations, will include one or more games.

Rumors that Microsoft is preparing a decline in prices for all models of Xbox 360, already has appeared in anticipation of the July E3 Media & Business Summit. However, only cheaper version with hard drive for 20 GB, whose production has been discontinued.

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IT-business in the genre of Apple

Fair amount of business news in recent times associated with Apple. Perhaps the main news was that the Taiwanese company Foxconn has accelerated the production of smartphone iPhone 3G, which it produces to order Apple, to 800 thousand units per week. Such rate for the year will be 40 million such devices. According to the blog TechCrunch, the current rate exceeds the capacity of factories, Foxconn, which raises concerns about quality control. Last week, already poslyshalis complaints about the poor performance of the hull of certain models, in basic white.

Previously, industry media reported that Foxconn will supply only 24-25 million iPhone 3G. At the same time, analysts predicted, the market will need only 25 million of these smartphones for the whole of their life cycle. For comparison: Apple managed to sell only six million iPhone previous generation. Overall, in 2007, the world has sold 1 billion mobile phones and converged devices.

I recall that the iPhone 3G was introduced by consumers on June 9 this year. The unit entered the market in more than 20 countries around the world in July. It is expected that by the end of the year the device is sold in 70 countries. Russia and the CIS countries on the list yet, but these days the representatives of the exclusive distributor of Apple products in Russia, Apple IMC, said that the supply of smartphone could begin in 2009.

Do not rage and court battles surrounding the "fruit company". Lawyers for the company Psystar, producing clones of computers Mac, intend to use to combat Apple antitrust laws, said attorney Colby Springer. According to him, a court protection Psystar will insist that Apple violates antitrust laws. Other details of its strategy counsel, however, are not reported.

In early July this year, Apple sued the Psystar, accusing the latter of copyright infringement. For the presentation of its interest Psystar in court hired the law firm of Carr & Ferrell, who has previously won business from Apple. I recall that in April the company Psystar introduced Mac-compatible computer OpenMac. Later it was renamed the OpenComputer. The formal reason for the claim Apple was that OpenComputer running Mac OS X. Under the terms of the license agreement, the operating system can be installed only on computers manufactured by the very Apple.

The head of Apple, Steve Dzhobs in internal letter to staff the company said that the service was launched MobileMe premature and not in line with corporate standards. He proposed to remedy the situation before the end of the year. According Dzhobsa, Apple should start MobileMe gradually, rather than a monolithic service. For example, to start might be allowed to synchronize with the iPhone, then run web applications such as Mail and Calendar. Dzhobs also called a mistake to launch MobileMe simultaneously with the iPhone 3G, firmware iPhone 2.0 and store applications App Store. According to him, the staff was what to do at this time and MobileMe could be safely deferred.

Apple has not once had to apologize for the poor quality of service MobileMe and even reorganize the whole team working on the service. Group referred by the beginning of Eddie Kyu, who has since become the leader of all Internet services Apple, including iTunes and the App Store.

Memo: MobileMe - paid service Apple, which is to replace a similar Mac. MobileMe allows you to synchronize information between computers users and servers use Apple as a repository for mail, images and other files. MobileMe was presented on June 9.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Thoughts on Education

Studies at the university, many successful people remember as a solid five years doing nothing. At the same time, many of those who studied at the Institute of the fine, now, at best, go down to the former slacker and truant. This fact has long been known and is not paradoxical. But in a world of information technology today, several other realities ...

In general, there is nothing illogical that the one who used to twist off and examinations, is more likely to unscrew and in life. For most technical specialties way zazubrivaniya anything that requires teachers to know - is, strangely enough, the path of least resistance. However, not for me to tell you about this - I think most of the readers of "Computer news" either already has a diploma of higher education or have a pleasure to stay in it.

Now let us look towards the IT skills of Belarusian universities. People are learning a lot, and most of those who are learning, linking their future that is information technology. This big difference specialty engineer-programmer of other engineering specialties. If you ask students of any technological faculty of who are planning their profession, it is unlikely to get a friendly response: "Yes, all." This, of course, not the least of which is determined by the prestige of IT industry and the earnings it, but also worth noting the fact that hardly a student of IT profession will be distributed somewhere in the village, as may well happen with the same chemists or, say builders.

Let's now look at modern IT companies. Who directs them who their bases? Those who have a good understanding of information technology. There's no need to recall the textbook example of a student-nedouchki Gates. It was a long time, and, indeed, it was in America. America - not Belarus, and Microsoft - not the Belarusian autsorsingovaya office. Looking the truth, we can say the world's IT people without education can not be a successful businessman - too many different factors have to bear in mind. You need a good understanding of the technological nuances of creating software - although now its development and close more or less to normal production of manufactured goods, however, differences remain myriad. Joel Spolski (if you do not know who it is, necessarily poguglite - fear of his articles, you'll get a lot of interesting information and food for thought) generally believes that successfully guide the company producing the software can only be a good programmer. And, although good, but not enough good to be a fanatic of his craft. I think this is difficult to disagree.

Of course, to now successfully writing web-sites. NET'e or make generic applications to automate workflow enterprises do not necessarily learn from the "excellent" every five years to mehmate BSU. But now everything is beginning to play a big role to companies that operate in vertical niches, that is doing highly specialized products for any industry. Of course, anyone who wants to earn money for their ideas implemented in a software product should be to start these very least have an idea. How do these ideas may appear, if a person knows nothing about the industry, for which he plans to create applications? Is it possible that they (the idea) where someone steal.

Of course, you can say this is all very good and interesting, but really to write applications for pharmaceutical enterprises, necessarily have to be a programmer, and a pharmacist? And sure, two of higher education? No, of course. This can successfully pharmacist, ovladevshy in your spare time programming, or a programmer, hired a pharmacist, podnatorevshim in information technology - a programmer who has set a target.

So without education can not do it for the IT industry is a success factor, and this fundamental difference of information technology to many other areas of human activity. And higher education is not simply desirable - it is necessarily for a person who wants to become a computer programmer. Those who want to become a businessman of high technology, be sure to go to school simple Labor horses "- that is, a programmer working for some time to explore the" kitchen "the IT industry. To develop a programmer ... See above. So if someone regrets spent wasted years spent on higher education, must ask ourselves: Maybe IT is not it? It may be better to go to the construction industry?

Friday, September 19, 2008

News for developers

* Michael Videnius, one of the founders of the company MySQL AB and the author of the original versions of critical DBMS MySQL, resigned from Sun Microsystems. Recall, Sun acquired MySQL AB earlier this year, and at that time, Michael served as the technical director of MySQL AB. That led to the departure of Videniusa, Sun does not speak, as well as about who will lead the development of MySQL instead. However, the most likely candidate to become vacant post is Brian Eyker, guiding the development Drizzle - variety MySQL, focusing on Web 2.0.

* The new version of PHP - 5.3 alpha. It developers have implemented a number of useful innovations: firstly, there namespace (namespaces), lambda functions and circuits, new expansion (extensions) - intl, phar, fileinfo and sqlite3. Support of NOWDOC, restricted GOTO, reduced the ternary operator. Developers finally to abandon support for older versions of Windows (Windows 98, NT4 and ME). On plans regarding the issuance of the final version of PHP 5.3 has not yet been reported.

* Oracle announced the release of Oracle Application Testing Suite - a package for testing the quality of web-applications created using the technology Oracle. Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications simulates tens of thousands of virtual users simultaneously accessing web-application, which will assess the sustainability of the site to load. Oracle Functional Testing for Web Applications will undertake functional testing project, and Oracle Test Manager for Web Applications to trace the complete coating application tests and help determine the requirements for the tested product, to choose and conduct tests manually or automatically, as well as maintain a database of detected errors and weaknesses. Automation testing is possible thanks to a special scripting language, also included in the package.

* Company jProductivity announced the release of Protection! 4 - a new version of product licensing for various applications. According to the developers of jProductivity, with the help of Protection! cozdateli applications will be able to establish full control over compliance with licensing agreements and exclude the likelihood of illegal copying and distribution of protected products. The new corporate version can control the process of issuing users with free trial licenses to manage business licenses, as well as deal with their activation and deactivation.

* Company CodeGear, part of the Embarcadero Technologies, posted on its website ISO-image version of the study with Delphi 2009. The size of his - 1945 MB, to download registration required.

* Also, Embarcadero Technologies announced the release of InterBase SMP 2009 - a new version of scalable built SQL-compliant database management system for enterprise applications. The new version of InterBase has support symmetric multiprocessor architecture (SMP) and allows you to take advantage of multicore systems. InterBase SMP 2009 supports enhanced data encryption at the level of individual columns or the entire database, encrypts data in the course of their transmission network, and also sells support for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

* Sony Ericsson published a SDK for their future smartphone Xperia X1. All independent developers can now start writing new or transferring existing applications under the platform Xperia.

* Also SonyEricsson developers submitted a new version of SDK for its new technology Capuchin, which should help to combine mobile applications possible, to provide proven platform Java Mobile Edition graphics and multimedia capabilities offered by the technology of Adobe Flash Lite. Capuchin allowed to introduce content format Flash Lite into the packed file with the Java-application (JAR), a Flash-domestic components can be standardized language ActionScript. When you run such applications on a device with the support of Capuchin elements midlet Java ME and elements of Flash-applications will interact with each other through special intermediate components. From the perspective of a programmer, an interface Capuchin API, and the application point of view - the library SWF2JAR. Support Capuchin should appear first on the phone SonyEricsson C905 Cyber-shot 8-megapixel camera, integrated navigation unit A-GPS, Bluetooth support networks and 3G, which will be released to the market to the New Year.

Google News malfunction caused the collapse of shares

Amazing incident occurred on the U.S. stock market last week. In the financial newsletter Bloomberg got news that the airline United Airlines has applied for bankruptcy. Bear market responded predictably, and stocks immediately fell down. Within a few minutes, the total capitalization of the company fell by about $ 1 billion only after five to ten minutes, people figure out what's wrong: to traders came, that this news is actually six years ago, which hit a mailing list by mistake. The course, of course, quickly recovered back. If you know of such a motion quotes in advance, the less dramatic movement can earn huge money.

As news of the forgotten archives to get to tape hot news? That would have been impossible without a series of fatal coincidences, errors in the algorithms of online services and human error. Assuming that someone planned the whole chain of "coincidences" in detail, it's just great scam, which brought him tens of millions of dollars for a few minutes. And to prove his guilt there would be absolutely impossible.

The story also sheds light on the mechanisms for information dissemination on the Internet and the potential vulnerability of online media, as well as fully automated trading on stock exchanges.

Here's how everything happened.

Text of press release, a statement of bankruptcy, as it turned out, this content newspaper Chicago Tribune for December 2002.

It all started with a god-forgotten site of a small sheet Florida Sun Sentinel, which belongs to the same media as the Chicago Tribune. Since this is a common holding company, the Chicago Tribune archives are available from Sun Sentinel. Articles are physically stored on their server and are open to the public six years. But they are in the area of the site, which is prohibited from entering the search bots.

But on Sunday the text of the press release hit the list of most popular articles on the site Sun Sentinel (why it happened - it is not known, but attendance at the site of a small, so nothing surprising in a random spate of popularity not). Thus, the reference to archive material off to the home page of Sun Sentinel, which is indexed in Google News.

And here the first bug. Algorithms Google News found that the material in 2002 - is "new material" and put him in the new material in his aggregatore news.google.com. Obviously, the system Google News does not take into account the date news, but just in a search index of the text was not, and therefore the news felt "new".

Of course, Google undertaking of the charges. They explain that the site Google News news was in the "new" because it is really fresh material, which did not exist previously. In the text of the press release was clear date: 2002. If any of the people are not drawn to the attention, it's saying, they have problems.

What happened next has been human error. Editor agency Bloomberg saw the "fresh" news and incorporated it into a ribbon of hot news, which is spreading among traders. Naturally, in treyderskom to be taken into account seconds, all done in great haste. One can understand the editor, which weakened the credibility of vigilance and trust Google News.

Added that such a sharp drop in the shares would have been impossible if the traders were men. But nowadays, more than half of transactions on the exchange is automatic - treyderskimi special programs that instantly catch the slightest movement of quotations and activate programmed algorithms action. Once started falling quotations in these programs began to operate immediately triggers the dumping of shares. The wave of plum assets back into a snowball. Everything happened for a few minutes.

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The story of how Begun owner changed

In runet sostoyalyas one of the largest deals in its history. Google has bought a Rambler Media Russian service contextual advertising «Begun». The official amount of the transaction - about $140 million addition to the transaction, the company also entered into a cooperation agreement. Google will enhance search engine «Rambler» through its algorithms and will be available on the site of the Russian contextual advertising. Google will also share with «by Rambler» proceeds from the sale of the advertising.

Analysts surprisingly unanimous: «Begun» - the largest and return on assets «Rambler», but the company has not had an opportunity to effectively develop its. Now «Rambler» focus on the development of media and service areas, and the sale of «Begun» just give the necessary funds. Interestingly, the negotiations for the sale of «Begun» were another foreign Internet companies - Yahoo. However, Google offered better conditions and eventually became a buyer. It turns out that for second place in the Russian market contextual advertising Google, in fact, and paid a $140 million, or almost 740 thousand dollars for each employee «Begun». So, the Russian service contextual advertising sold to the global Internet giant for $140 million The money is divided between the sellers «Begun» - «Rambler Media» (owner of a controlling interest - 50.1% stake) and an affiliate of the investment holding company «Finam» (49 , 9% stake «Begun»). Close the deal is scheduled in September. During the transaction «Rambler» purchase from the «Finama» his share of Google stock and sell 100 per bag. As a result, «Finam» will receive $69.9 million, while net profit «Rambler» after all transactions of approximately $50 million For comparison: the entire LiveJournal, with its 14 million users cost the company SUP in the $30 million recall that Rambler obtains control «Runners» in August 2007 th, dokupiv 25% of the company. In March 2008, «Begun» became the exclusive seller of contextual advertising on the pages of resources Rambler. Meanwhile, Google reached an agreement with Rambler something about it. Under the agreement signed by the two companies seek to rambler.ru will be enhanced searching Google. Together with the issuance of a search Rambler will display ads Google AdSense. Give Google search, «Rambler» will also receive at least 50% of profits as a partner. That is holding maintained its sales and even once received a $70 million.


Comments parties to the transaction:

Mark Opzumer, general director of the holding company Rambler Media: «Begun - an excellent business that can fully develop their potential, under the leadership of Google. Google has the technological and financial capacity to further develop the service «Begun» in Russia ». Alexei Basov, CEO of «Begun»: «This agreement will benefit the entire industry because it opens up great opportunities for cooperation. This would allow Google to combine innovative technology with the successful experience of six companies «Begun» to build an advertising and dealer network, as well as direct sales in Russia ».

It should be noted that Google pays it for outreach and advertising network «Begun», and not for his engine. This means that customers «Begun» will be eventually transferred to the engine Google, and the main question - how much pain will be for them this association. It is possible also that «Begun» - not the last acquisition by Google in Russia: the service contextual advertising may follow, and playground. As a result of absorption «Begun» in the Russian market contextual advertising will remain only two major players that control about 95% of the market: «Yandex» and Google. «Yandex» now has a market share of over 50%, it remains the leader. Nevertheless, with the advent of Google's «Yandex» slightly increases the probability of losing leadership in the future. Not immediately, but in the perception of advertisers formed the stereotype of the existence of two roughly equal sites for posting ads, and pooling of resources and Google «Begun» play a role. As a result, budgets for Google and «Yandex» will be equalized. Google himself agreement would allow greater gain in high growth markets of Russian Internet adverts. At this year market growing at 50%, and by 2010, analysts estimated, the volume will exceed one billion dollars. As now say top managers «Rambler Media», proceeds from the sale of share ownership in «Begun» will be used for further investment in technology development and strengthening of the news content as well as new acquisitions. After completion of the transaction, the «Rambler Media» will be $100 million, the most interesting segments for investment in the company believe search technology, communication and entertainment projects. Apparently, sales of «Begun» seriously reduce profits «Rambler», which will now be earning on their sites from the new owner of an advertising system. However, as a result of the transaction «Rambler» loses partner network, but the contribution of partners in revenue «Begun», and so was negligible. At one time, «Begun» was the best investment «Finama». In 2003, «Finam» bought the whole company for $0.75 million now, he will receive from the Rambler $69,9 million - in addition to the $18.75 million paid by Rambler in 2005-2007 to 50,1% «Begun». Total Investment earns $87.9 million, or yield to exceed 1000% per annum. The company «Yandex», which is not going to sell out, and plans to compete, made through your blog with an official statement about the deal around «Begun»:

«Rambler» and Google announced an agreement - Google becomes the search for www.rambler.ru and buys a «Rambler» system of placing ads «Begun». Thus disappears oldest search engine Runeta - «Rambler» and the changing landscape of the Russian Internet. Naturally, «Yandex» received numerous requests for comment this transaction, and therefore we decided to answer all at once. We believe that this deal, Google does not so much buying a business «Begun», but receives additional share of the Russian search market through «Rambler». According to statistics LiveInternet, the last six months «Yandex» able to maintain the proportion of search traffic at the level of 54-55%. Share Google has recently stabilized at 21-22%. If you see a long statistics show that the previous growth Google was mainly due to the search «Rambler», whose share fell to 11% and close to the search portal Mail.ru (8-9%), working on technology «Yandex» . After the transaction remains in RuNet two search engines: Google and «Yandex» (share of each of the other search does not exceed 1%). Russia is one of the few countries that has its own search technology, dominant in the market. In this variety except Russia faces China, Korea and the United States. His competitive search technology is not proven, in particular, in any country in Western Europe. However, only two countries in the United States and Russia, to find enough engineers to create more than one technology, with a significant market share. In Russia the main systems were «Yandex» and «Rambler». We are very sorry that it is now a Russian search technology will disappear. By colleagues from Google professionals «Yandex» always treated with great respect. We are interested in for many years to compete with global companies such level. Russia remains a difficult market for global Internet players. Services Yahoo! and Microsoft, despite the Russification of interfaces, and do not have any noticeable Russian users. A Google in Russia went to such unconventional steps for themselves how extensive advertising campaign or buying a local player ».


Information:

The group Rambler Media includes Internet search engine Rambler.ru, online media Lenta.ru, Price.ru, Rambler-ICQ, etc. Revenue «Rambler» in 2007 increased by 125% - to $69.1 million now, according to the statistics service Liveinternet, «Yandex» handles 54% of search queries in runet, Google - 21%, Rambler - 11%.
«Begun» - contextual advertising system. The number of advertisers in the system is 40 thousand, the number of partners - 143 thousand Revenue «Begun» from providing services in 2007 amounted to 1.085 trillion rubles. The bulk of the proceeds «Begun» receives from placing ads on Internet sites «Rambler». 50,1% «Begun» has «Rambleru», 49,9% - an investment company «Finam».

It is estimated the company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Russian market for Internet advertising in 2007 increased by 52% - up to $352 million in «Begun» believe this assessment underestimated. The company estimates that the 2007 market for Internet advertising reached $400 million, while segment contextual advertising accounted for $210 million projected to PwC, in the long term average annual market growth of 40% and in 2012, revenue from advertising in runet reach $19 billion must say that the sale «Begun» for such an impressive sum - no evidence of weakness, but rather forces «Rambler». It is precisely the company «Rambler Media» released financial results of the first half of 2008 th. Revenues company has more than 150% compared to the 1 st half of 2007. Revenues of the group of companies (including proceeds «Begun») amounted to $52 million - a 153% higher than that of 2007 th. Consolidated revenues from contextual advertising for the period rose to 5.5 times and amounted to $23.5 million, from the media/banner advertising - $21.8 million (an increase of 94%). Revenues from paid search grew by 62% to $6.9 million partner network «Begun» added to the consolidated revenue $16.6 million According to analysts, while core earnings growth «Rambler» was to consolidate «Begun», acceleration of organic growth Revenue associated with successful sales in the II quarter of banner advertising, which increased by 42% compared with I quarter. There seems to move the company from minute to dynamic pricing in 2008 is beginning to bear fruit - the profitability of advertising space on the web «Rambler» has been rising. On 30 June this year, «Rambler Media» employed 509 people, not counting the 191 staff members «Begun». Percentage of staff costs to sales declined from 43% last year to 30% in the first half of 2008 is estimated «Rambler», its monthly audience averaged in the first half of 37.3 million unique visitors, a 30% above last year's figures. In May 2008 the first number of «unique» reached 40 million, which is 35% higher than the same figure for May last year. Incidentally, during the last half «Rambler» acquired the remaining 49% stake Price.ru and now owns 100% stake. «Rambler» now plans to move toward «portal» - development of additional services like Price.ru. The company has already confirmed the previously articulated forecast earnings for 2008 - $100 - $110 million.

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IT-industry: creative force

Last week the global IT-industry is literally frozen in anticipation of the appointment on 1 August meeting of shareholders Yahoo. It was on Friday addressed the fate of the Internet giant. Unfortunately, the technology newspaper does not allow me to tell you now, dear readers, than all over. But I promise: a detailed account of the event, you will see in the next issue of KG. In the meantime, let's talk about other significant developments IT-business.

Sony Corp. summed up the results of activity in I quarter of 2008-2009 fiscal year. Sony Net Profit for the period from April to June amounted to about $ 327 million That is almost twice lower than I quarter of last fiscal year. Thus, Sony has been unable to meet the expectations of analysts, who predicted last quarter profits of $ 486 million decline in net profits of Japanese corporations explain the increasing competition in the market game console, weak sales of smartphones Sony Ericsson, as well as the strengthening yen against the U.S. dollar . Along with the publication finotcheta Sony has adjusted the forecast revenue and profits for the current fiscal year. Now, experts expect the company annual revenue of $ 85.98 billion instead of previously called $ 84.1 billion Regarding net profit, its prognosis, however, reduced from $ 2.71 billion to $ 2.24 billion

The company Motorola is expanding its arsenal of products in the segment of corporate networks. She buys AirDefense - companies that sell solutions to the security of wireless LAN. The amount will not be disclosed. AirDefense was organized in 2001 by private individuals. It is one of the few companies that specialize in selling software that helps companies protect their corporate networks from all sorts of wireless threats informbezopasnosti. Motorola expects the positive end of the transaction in the next few months. As a result, AirDefense will be integrated into the unit Motorola Enterprise Mobility.

The company Citrix Systems reported financial results II quarter 2008 financial year (end on 30 June 2008). In II quarter earnings Citrix reached $ 392 million - a 17% exceeds the corresponding figure of 2007 ($ 334 million). Net income for the period rose by 2% to $ 71 million to $ 70 million in the corresponding period last year. In general, in the II quarter of 2008 compared with the II quarter of 2007 - the first revenues from licensing products increased by 12%, and renewal of licenses grew by 16%; online services showed an increase of 23%, revenue from technology services, including in a counseling, education and technical support, grew by 34%. The increase in revenue in EMEA was 22% in Pacific - 11%, and in the Americas - 13%. Cash flow from the company amounted to $ 75 million, thus the figure for the last 12 months reached in the $ 379 million has been purchased 2.1 million shares at an average price of $ 33.50 per share. Mark Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix, both commented on the current results: «I am pleased with another excellent quarter of growth. In each of the geographic regions we have achieved revenue growth of more than 10% and reached the planned targets for earnings per share. Overall, we had an excellent quarter, despite the severe macro-economic situation ». According to projections Citrix, in the III quarter of this year net profit of the company will be in the range of $ 385 million to $ 400 million to $ 350 million received in the III quarter of 2007 th. In the 2008 fiscal year, Citrix expects a net profit ranging from $ 1.59 to $ 1.62 billion during the II quarter of this year, Citrix start deliveries Citrix XenDesktop 2.0; released Citrix NetScaler MPX, which reduces the value of the data center, serving twice as many Web applications, has released Citrix Access Gateway, added to the Citrix XenDesktop smart management has launched a new pricing model for Citrix XenServer, allowing for a fixed price set an unlimited number of virtual machines on one server. Also in the second quarter of Citrix XenServer started to be installed on the company's PowerEdge servers Dell.

Not the most outstanding results showed unit Samsung Digital Media in the II quarter of this year. Many in the industry attribute this to the forced participation of companies in price wars to market TVs and monitors. For example, in May in North America, Sony provoked market LCD TVs this situation, in which Samsung was forced to enter into a price race. At the same time in China, the company had to lower prices of LCD monitors in the fight against the aggressive pricing strategy of its competitor's TPV Technology. Nevertheless, with all these losses II quarter of Samsung Electronics has no plans to change the plan for producing flat-panel TV in 2008. At a conference for investors, the situation surrounding the Samsung Digital Media has been attributed to global economic slowdown. In addition, Samsung forecast that in the second half of the year, total demand in the market of flat-panel TV can reach 69 million units, so the previously announced plan annual production (21 million pcs.) Will not be changed. And about display. After the sale of plasma panels increased significantly in the I quarter, the second formed a lull in the market: sales growth of only 1%. Only this time it was sold 3.5 million devices. According to the company DisplaySearch, demand for plasma in North America and China was low, but the rest of the demand for plasma panels, particularly in the model class full HD, was much higher. Thus, compared with the same period last year, growth in sales of televisions with 1080p resolution in the II quarter was 54%. The sharp rise in demand for the model has led to increased sales revenue by 28% compared to last year and 6% over the previous quarter.

The company Infineon announced its intention to reduce the three thousand jobs next year to stabilize its economic situation. Two-thirds of the reductions affect Germany, where the company has 10 thousand employees. Peter Bauer, CEO Infineon, said that the goal is to reduce annual costs by at least 200 million euros. Infineon plans continue to trend in Germany. Such large German companies like BMW, Siemens, Henkel and Continental, also announced staff reductions, anticipating the worsening economic situation in Europe. Infineon reported a loss of 592 million euros in the III quarter related to the subsidiary Qimonda (producer of memory card), which, according to plans the company will be sold in 2009. Except for problems with Qimonda Infineon reported an operating profit of 71 million euros, which exceeds the expectations of analysts. But this success has been achieved from the sale of assets. The price of shares of the company rose by 5% and reached the mark 5.06 euros. Infineon predicts stable (with possible minor deviations) increase in profits in the IV quarter compared with last year.

But more news on computer memory. The first company to reduce the prices of memory card, according to industry players, will be Kingston. Specialists believe that in 2008, in a situation where the cost of flash memory type NAND steadily declining, Kingston will be forced to reduce the price of manufactured memory card. This, in turn, will push for other manufacturers. Sources in the company's report that the proposal for such measures was formulated in a general downtrend in the market value of memory cards, as well as a response to one of the major competitors of SanDisk, whose representatives at a conference for investors, announced the beginning of a new, more aggressive pricing strategy. Moreover, we note that the timing and magnitude of decline in prices is not yet known.

Resigned CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Pat Russo and Chairman of the Board Serge Tchuruk. Meanwhile, net losses Franco-American company Alcatel-Lucent, produces telecommunications equipment for the II quarter of this year decreased by 33.9% - up to 222 million euros, compared with a loss of 336 million euros from the same period a year earlier. Alcatel-Lucent's revenues for the quarter declined by II 5.2% and amounted to 4.1 billion euros against 4.33 billion euros a year earlier. Operating profit for the period amounted to 93 million euros, while the year before the company received operating loss of 19 million euros.

28 July, Oracle Corporation has made further amendments in a lawsuit against the company SAP on charges of «corporate theft of scale» and unfair competition. As stated in the lawsuit, members of the SAP were aware of fraudulent activities TomorrowNow, even before its acquisition. I recall that Oracle filed a lawsuit against its German rival in March 2007 in federal district court of California, which had accused its American subsidiary TomorrowNow in the unauthorized downloading of software products that are protected by copyright, with servers Oracle. The damage to activities of Oracle TomorrowNow, estimated at $ 1 billion in the new edition of the claim Oracle, referring to internal papers SAP, alleges that the four members of the SAP including acting general director Henning Kagermanna in January 2005 were in possession of confidential documents incriminating company TomorrowNow in «illegal actions». Thus, according to Oracle, SAP management was aware of the fraudulent actions of TomorrowNow - in particular, carried it on Corporate theft - both before and after the acquisition of companies (SAP bought TomorrowNow, specializing in services for clients JD Edwards and PeopleSoft, in February In 2005 with the aim of the enticement of them and otnyatiya revenue from Oracle). The lawsuit Oracle, filed in the District Court of San Francisco, said: «SAP gained unauthorized access to business applications Oracle, software and other confidential documents used by Oracle to service its customers, illegally copied and used them for their own purposes. All the acts were committed with the consent and notification to the board of directors SAP ». According to SAP Sasvato Das, the company is preparing a formal response to allegations Oracle, which will publish the September 11. According to SAP, company management decided to close the branch TomorrowNow by 31 October 2008, which followed an unsuccessful attempt to sell it. Currently, SAP is working directly with 225 clients TomorrowNow to provide them support the use of products JD Edwards and PeopleSoft. And in July 2007, SAP formally recognized the fact that its U.S. subsidiary made several unauthorized downloads from the site of a competitor. However, according to the company, SAP itself did not have access to files TomorrowNow, and thus did not use the intellectual property of Oracle.

Company O-Reilly Media reported on the spread of open source software in business environment. Technical expert InfoWorld Bill Snyder, referring to the paper argues that language and skills among the Open Source can provide employment in information technology. According to the report O-Reilly Media, today at the IT-labor market from 5% to 15% of the vacancies require skills to develop software with open source. Another argument in favor of his claim, Snyder calls the increase in database projects SourceForge, a system of joint development of computer programs. Studies have shown that about 1.9% of large companies in the market associated with Open Source. Bill Snyder drew attention to the fact that this statistic refers not only IT-vacancies. The expert believes natural increase in the number of proposals in the labor market associated with Open Source. In his view, companies are looking for cost-effective solutions to the global slowdown in the economy. In addition, many large companies are already using software with open source. For example, Google uses as a base operating system, a modified version of Linux. The demand for skills-based servers Linux, according to the O-Reilly Media, as well as the language Perl and JavaScript, rose slightly, but the area has long provided the most rich offer vacancies open source in the labor market. Bill Snyder believes that the IT-industry underestimated the potential of software products with open source. In his view, the Open Source products are gradually moving towards a central position in the market, and this trend is quite obvious.

German group Siemens AG intends to file a suit against 11 former top managers of the damage to the company as a result of a corruption scandal. The company believes that the former top managers who have not performed their duties properly, are responsible for losses incurred as a result of concern over the scandal «black funds». Among the top managers, whose company intends to recover the money, the amount of which did not specify - former CEO Heinrich von Pirer and his successor Klaus Klyaynfeld. Prior to the court in Munich found guilty of corruption in the former office manager of telecommunications equipment company Siemens AG Reinhard Sikasheka. In a sentencing court has appointed a fine of 108 million euros and two years' deprivation of liberty. I recall that in October 2007, German court fined Siemens 201 million euros to the bribery of officials and managers of state companies in Russia, Libya and Nigeria. Siemens internal investigation found that «suspicious transactions» in 2000-2006 amounted to 1.3 billion euros.

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