Apple is apparently more reasonable than it lets on.
Back in 2010 it offered Samsung a license. Apple estimates that it might have cost Samsung $288 million back then. Now it’s asking $2.5 billion and that’s just in the current case in California.
FOSS Patents calls it “the most spectacular revelation of the ongoing trial.”
According to analysis from research firm Frost and Sullivan, over half of Australian companies using cloud computing services are spending 10% of their budget on the cloud.
Further research revealed that 70% of Australian enterprises in the cloud are looking to boost their services “significantly” in the next 12 months.
The overall research into Australian business showed:
The study noted the similarities between companies pursuing software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
While SaaS remained the most common delivery model, the use of IaaS has skyrocketed, in part due to increased local market adoption, the report noted.
The usual concerns over moving to the …
Ben Kepes and I had a load of fun last year, helping the team at VentureBeat put on their inaugural cloud computing event, CloudBeat. Clearly we did something right whilst having fun, as they’ve invited us back to reprise our content advising/ programme shaping role again this year. Right at the end of November, we’ll once again be doing what we can to assemble a stellar cast of cloud companies and their customers at the Sofitel in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco. As the blurb states, Unlike other cloud conferences, CloudBeat brings IT executives who use cloud technologies onto the same stage as the companies making those technologies. It’s a rare chance to learn what really works, who’s buying what, and where the industry is going. Ben and I both feel that there’s a real need to ensure that the stories of customer success (and failure) get heard, instead of just having the cloud companies tell us how wonderful they’re going to make the future. How do the adopters of cloud solutions have to change? What can they do that they couldn’t achieve with other approaches? Is it about saving money, or going green, or being agile, or […]
Cloud pioneer Salesforce.com reportedly got its biggest contract ever, bigger than its State Farm deal, which was valued at $140 million, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Mark Murphy.
Who it is is a mystery. Forbes thinks it’s a large tech company.
IBM has sent up its first research lab in Africa. That makes an even dozen labs worldwide. The new one’s in Nairobi in Kenya. It should host 50 researchers in five years.
IBM didn’t say how much it’s investing but the government of Kenya is putting in $2 million a year for five years for a share in the copyrights.
After buying Motorola Mobility and its 17,000 patents for $12.5 billion in May, Google is going to try to make the place profitable, something that has eluded it for 14 of the last 16 quarters.
Struggling Research In Motion is looking to sell NewBay Media, the white-label mobile content supplier that it bought last October for $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal in a story Reuters picked up on.
Other non-core assets could also go. RIM has RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan exploring strategic options. The company is trying to cut a billion dollars in costs ahead of bringing the new Blackberry 10 to market early next year.
Struggling Research In Motion is looking to sell NewBay Media, the white-label mobile content supplier that it bought last October for $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal in a story Reuters picked up on.
Other non-core assets could also go. RIM has RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan exploring strategic options. The company is trying to cut a billion dollars in costs ahead of bringing the new Blackberry 10 to market early next year.
Struggling Research In Motion is looking to sell NewBay Media, the white-label mobile content supplier that it bought last October for $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal in a story Reuters picked up on.
Other non-core assets could also go. RIM has RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan exploring strategic options. The company is trying to cut a billion dollars in costs ahead of bringing the new Blackberry 10 to market early next year.
Google CEO Larry Page seems to, for now, have made a surgical strike rather than haven taken the axe to Motorolo Mobility. Although 20% of its workforce slated for removal, the company says two-thirds of the erstwhile 4,000 jobs are in Asia. Furthermore, the company says the US cuts are mostly at the VP level.
So Larry Page hasn’t yet made the big, scary cuts we might have expected. Sitting as I currently do in Illinois, I can also say this is big news at the local level. Furthermore, Google says part of its core product development will remain in the Chicago area. The company also says that said product development will involve a few dozens of people, not hundreds or thousands.
Eureka!
This makes sense, as most of the great breakthroughs in the Information Age have been made by small teams, if not a single individual. You need some scale to build things up and out, but certainly not to have Eureka moments.
This insight reminds me of my time a few years ago at a Silicon Valley software company, when on many days it felt like we were a group of about 2,000 people glommed to the backs of a few brilliant developers. It could be that Larry Page and company feel the same way, which would not be surprising given Larry’s technical roots.
It It’s Not Broken…
Page seems to be happy with the current Android model, which helps brand the company name and could set the stage for future revenues if the company decides to reign it in or charge a licensing fee. He certainly is planning for Moto to regain brand recognition and market share as the smartphone market continues to develop, and thereby create significant new revenue for the company.
The tricky part will be to balance the equity of the respective Google and Motorola brands. Will anyone really buy hardware from a software company? Microsoft is about to find this out, and Google will benefit from observing this, no matter how many mitigating factors are associated with the Microsoft name.
Eternal Change
The smartphone market has already seen a lot of flux, with RIM dying, Nokia putting itself on life support, Microsoft not breathing well, and Taiwanese company HTC seemingly coming from nowhere to emerge as a major player. South Korea’s Samsung is one of two 800-pound gorillas in the market, and I believe it will emerge from its tussle with Apple with only its fur roughed up a bit. The other big Korean play, Lucky Goldstar (LG) can’t be counted out, but needs to step up its game.
And we always have to ask, where is Sony? Can the company ever regain the magic it had from the 70s through the 90s? Remember when people took trips to Tokyo just to go to Akihabara and see what Sony was up to?
For now, Page has not killed the Motorola name, and he has not made deep cuts at the company. Today’s announcement looks like Google is simply ridding itself of some offices it doesn’t need in countries in which it doesn’t do much business, and also cutting out a top management layer from the old company. The question will be whether a few dozen people will be able to save the acquisition. I think they can.