Compuware announced Monday that it has completed the buyout of Web optimization company Gomez, bringing aboard the acquired firm's 272 employees into a new Web Performance division.
As an application and testing firm, Compuware provides enterprise customers with tools to optimize the performance of their server-based applications. Gomez helps its customers monitor and manage the performance of their Web sites and Web-based applications.
Compuware believes that the addition of Gomez, first announced in October, will allow it to provide a wider range of services to help customers test and optimize both in-house and Internet-based applications.
The deal has also garnered praise from some industry analysts. A recent IDC report "Compuware Expands SaaS Portfolio With Gomez Acquisition" sees the Gomez/Compuware marriage as a good match with plenty of upside.
"We're thrilled to welcome the Gomez team to Compuware," said Compuware President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Paul in a statement. "Together, Compuware and Gomez will--through a solution that features rapid time-to-value, ease of use and real-time answers--give IT and business executives the optimal application performance they need to drive brand image, customer loyalty and revenue."
Compuware said it will keep the Gomez brand, technology, and business model but look to integrate its new purchase in such areas as sales and marketing. Gomez CEO Jaime Ellertson will remain and serve as president of Gomez, the Web Performance division of Compuware.
Compuware expects the acquisition to add to operations this year.
PC processors are the latest tech segment bouncing back from the recession.
Third-quarter shipments of computer processors, or CPUs, climbed 23 percent over the second quarter of 2009, doubling typical growth and setting a record for sequential growth, according to an IDC report released Monday.
Revenue from processor sales also bounced back to hit $7.4 billion, a 14 percent gain over the second quarter, according to IDC's "Worldwide PC Processor 3Q09 Vendor Shares" report.
IDC viewed the record levels in shipments as a promising sign in economic recovery.
"Most meaningful about 3Q09 is that, since PC processor shipments overall just slightly exceeded shipments in 3Q08--which was itself a record quarter at the time--we know that the processor market is recovering," Shane Rau, IDC's director of semiconductors for personal computing research, said in a statement.
With the popularity of Netbooks, mobile processors such as Intel's Atom chip drove much of the growth. Shipments of the mobile CPUs jumped 35.7 percent over the second quarter, while desktop processor shipments rose 11.4 percent sequentially. Since mobile processors are cheaper than their desktop counterparts, their growth in revenue trailed the growth in shipments.
"The story about 3Q09 leads with Atom processors being sold in mini-notebooks (a.k.a. Netbooks) manufactured and sold in China," said Rau. "While Atom processors led the PC processor market to reach record unit shipments, on the revenue side, their low average selling price led to notable price erosion, more than 7 percent."
Among vendors, Intel kept its place at the top of the charts, enjoying an 81.1 percent share of the worldwide market for processor shipments. That left AMD with 18.7 percent and third-place Via Technologies with 0.2 percent.
By processor type, Intel captured 88 percent of the mobile PC processor market, leaving Advanced Micro Devices with 11.9 percent, and Via with the rest. For desktop CPUs, Intel's slice was smaller at 72.2 percent, while AMD grabbed a 27.4 percent chunk and Via held a 0.3 percent share.
Solid demand so far in the fourth quarter led IDC to raise its expectations for 2009. The firm is now eyeing more than 300 million shipments of processors for the year, a gain of 1.5 percent over 2008.
Still, since much of the growth came from low-cost mobile processors and certain areas of the economy remain sluggish, IDC is cautious about early 2010.
"The market's growth has been due to shipments of inexpensive Atom processors being sold into markets like China, which is being stimulated by government incentives there," Rau said. "The Chinese market can be very opaque--there are lots of places where inventories can hide. We have to be on the lookout for when China decides it can't consume more processors. Meanwhile, the U.S. market is still hamstrung by housing foreclosures and rising job losses."
Five years ago, Mozilla made it clear that the browser wars weren't over after all.
In the 1990s, Netscape had lost its dominance in the browser market to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and the Netscape-spawned open-source project called Mozilla had sunk into obscurity. Even a federal antitrust suit accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive practices with its browser and Windows was not enough to turn the tide.
But on November 9, 2004, Firefox 1.0 emerged to fight back again.
The project, originally named Phoenix to symbolize rebirth from Netscape's ashes, has now clawed its way back to account for nearly a quarter of the browser usage today. Microsoft may not be on the run, but it's on the defensive, gradually building its browser development effort back up into fighting form.
... Read moreCisco Systems is once again stepping on its partners' toes and taking on new rivals as it adds new capabilities to its suite of unified communications products and services.
On Monday, the company will announce several new and enhanced software tools for instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, videoconferencing, document and video sharing. Some of these new products will compete directly with similar products offered by Cisco partners, Microsoft and IBM.
Cisco is taking direct aim at Microsoft with a new corporate e-mail service called Webex Email. Cisco has combined technology from its acquisition of Postpath with its Webex conferencing service. The combined offering gives corporate users access to their Outlook e-mail from any browser. The new service puts email in the "cloud" and eliminates the need for Microsoft Exchange servers.
Cisco already competes with Microsoft in the unified communications market. In fact, the two companies are strong rivals here. But Microsoft has had an advantage over Cisco with its strong presence on the desktop.
Competition between Cisco and Microsoft started to heat up earlier this year, when Cisco took its WebEx Web conferencing service into the cloud. At that time, Cisco executives said there was a possibility that Cisco would compete directly with Microsoft's e-mail Exchange platform.
As for the online collaboration market, Cisco and Microsoft aren't the only ones developing solutions. Google also offers document creation and sharing online. But so far those services haven't gotten much appeal outside of the individual consumer market. And it has yet to take shape in the enterprise market. And of course, Google already offers Internet-based e-mail through Gmail. IBM, another major Cisco partner, is also trying to get into Web-based e-mail market with its product iNotes.
As part of its blitz of collaboration announcements, Cisco also announced several other products and enhancements to its unified communications line-up, including some new social-networking tools and enhancements to its video conferencing and high-end telepresence solutions.
On the social-networking side, Cisco has developed a YouTube-like service called Cisco Show and Share that allows users to create, edit, and share video content. It is also introducing the Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform, which creates a sort of Facebook for corporate users. The tool includes the ability offer blogging, wikis, team pages, and instant messaging on an internal social networking site.
Other new products include the Cisco Intercompany Media Engine. This product allows users from different companies to communicate and collaborate with each other over a secure network connection.
On the video side, Cisco is introducing the Intercompany Cisco Telepresence Directory, which allows users to see who is available for video chats. The company also added the ability to allow Webex users to click to make video calls to users in a Cisco Teleprresence room. These video conferencing rooms are high-definition video conferencing purpose-built rooms that often cost about $300,000. Cisco also said it has tweaked its telepresence product to allow it to work with equipment from competitors, such as Polycom and Tandberg.
Cisco is currently trying to acquire Tandberg for $3 billion. But Tandberg's shareholders recently said they would reject the offer if Cisco didn't increase its bid.
Despite persistent rumors, Nvidia's chief executive says the graphics chip supplier is not working on an Intel-compatible chip.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang
(Credit: Nvidia)CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was asked about the possibility of Nvidia coming up with its own x86 (Intel-compatible) chip technology in a phone interview Thursday, after the company reported strong third-quarter earnings. A recurring rumor has it that Nvidia is developing a chip that would be able to run the same software that runs on all Intel- and AMD-based PCs worldwide.
"No," he said when asked if there was any truth to the rumor. "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing."
Huang went on to describe where the chip supplier sees its best opportunities for growth. "Our strategy is to proliferate the GPU (graphics processing unit) into all kinds of platforms for growth," he said. "GPUs in servers for parallel computing, for supercomputing--and cloud computing with our GPU is a fabulous growth opportunity--and streaming video."
"And also getting our GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with it," Huang added, referring to its Tegra chip, which, for example, powers Microsoft's Zune HD media player.
Despite Huang's denials, Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech is the latest to postulate that Nvidia will enter the x86 central processing unit market. "We feel Nvidia could become a supplier of x86 CPUs by necessity, perhaps in the next 12 months (if not sooner) to preserve both GPU and chipset revenue," Freedman said in a note recently.
"We believe the company has hired former Transmeta staff extensively," Freedman said. Transmeta was at one time a low-power x86-compatible chip supplier. Earlier this year, Intellectual Ventures acquired the patent portfolio of Transmeta.
Huang also dismissed the the possibility of Nvidia using Globalfoundries as a manufacturing partner--typically referred to as a "foundry" or a "fab"--for its chips, after saying in the earnings conference call that Nvidia's longstanding foundry partner--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)--was not allocating it enough capacity.
"Globalfoundries is an AMD fab, right?" he said. "Globalfoundries is AMD's fab. Our strategy is TSMC."
If the iPhone didn't finish off Windows Mobile in the smartphone market, the Motorola Droid may.
Windows Mobile is losing the last vestiges of its mojo--if it really had any to begin with--as the Droid and other phones based on the Android 2.0 operating system push the buzz meter needle into the red zone. Many in the media--which can play a big role in steering users to one technology platform or another--sense that Windows Mobile has now been relegated resolutely to has-been status.
The Motorola Droid's high-resolution screen.
(Credit: Verizon)Let's do a quick canvas of what some in the press are saying now that we're at the start of the Droid era. A post on SFGate.com (the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle) is, like other commentary out there, clearly dismissive of Windows Mobile. "Curiously, Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in this battle royal," the author states, referring to the iPhone and Android.
And there's this more damning comment from a blog at SeattlePI.com. "Rarely mentioned, however, is another player in the mobile OS market--Microsoft. Why not? Because not many people in the smartphone world seem to really give a hoot about Windows Mobile anymore."
The litany of like articles is long. This post on PC World asks: "Has Microsoft Placed Its Last Mobile Bet?" The article cites research from Canalys showing Windows Mobile slipping from 13.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in 2002 to 9 percent in the second quarter of 2009.
The numbers are even less favorable in an accounting by ad service Admob, which compiles data on which operating systems are in use on mobile devices that access online ads. In August, according to AdMob, Windows Mobile had only a 4 percent share of the mobile OS market worldwide, down from 7 percent in February.
But getting back to my original premise of no mobile mojo for Windows. The fact is that consumers don't care about Windows on smartphones. In other words, while Windows seems to be a prerequisite for many consumers when buying a PC, it just doesn't come into play in a big way in a smartphone purchase.
This will have ramifications beyond Microsoft of course. Companies like Toshiba (and its attractive TG01 smartphone) will probably not be as successful on Windows Mobile as they would (will) be on Android 2.0. Or, at the very least, will not get the necessary buzz.
Then there's the Intel factor. Intel also wants to be a player, eventually, in the smartphone space. If it is indeed able to beat back Texas Instruments (whose chip is used in the Droid), Samsung (iPhone), Qualcomm (BlackBerry), and Marvell, it probably won't do it by sticking to the tried-and-true "WinTel" combination that's been so outrageously successful in the PC space.
And Intel is chasing a fast-moving target. TI, and all the other ARM-based chip suppliers cited above, are slated to bring out dual-core designs that can hit speeds as high as 2GHz (think next-generation tablets and media pads). In other words, they'll also be able claim the coveted speed mantle on phones, such as the Droid, where Windows Mobile is no where in sight.
So the Droid may not be the iPhone killer but rather the Windows Mobile slayer. Microsoft, of course, will always have the unassailable PC franchise. But, wait, isn't Android coming to Netbooks next year? Maybe the real battle royal for Microsoft is yet to come.
It looks as though Microsoft may have a winner in Windows 7, at least in comparison to Vista.
The software giant saw relatively strong early adoption of Windows 7 in the 10 days since its official launch. According to Net Applications, more than 3 percent of PCs accessing the Web in the past two days have been doing so using the new operating system. Usage of the operating system has been growing strong in recent days, though Windows 7 already accounted for 2 percent of global Web traffic in the days ahead of its formal launch.
Judging by its initial sales, Windows 7 is certainly proving more popular than Vista. Microsoft sold 234 percent more boxed editions of Windows 7 than it did Vista in the initial releases of both products, according to research released by NPD Group.
In actual dollars, Windows 7 has also been more successful than Vista. However, early discounts on pre-sales copies and a lack of a promotional boost behind Windows 7 Ultimate led to revenues only 82 percent greater than those of Vista.
• Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don'ts
• FAQ: Buying the right Windows 7 upgrade
• Microsoft Windows 7 vs. Apple Snow Leopard
More headlines
New York antitrust suit accuses Intel of bribery
Intel used payments to keep computer makers from selling systems with AMD chips, according to New York's attorney general. It's a new front in an old Intel war.• N.Y. lawsuit details Intel's 'largesse' toward Dell
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage
The cellular carrier acknowledges problems affecting both its voice and data networks.• T-Mobile users still reeling from outage
• T-Mobile says software error behind outage
AT&T vs. Verizon: There's a lawyer for that
AT&T is suing Verizon Wireless over its "There's a Map for That" ad campaign, stating that it misleads consumers about AT&T's network coverage.
Corporate bank accounts targeted in online fraud
Small and medium-size businesses, governments, and school districts are targets of online bank fraud involving malicious e-mails, key loggers, and money mules, FBI says.• Phishing, worms spike this year, say Microsoft and McAfee
• New Trojan encrypts files but leaves no ransom note
• Hacker breaks into jailbroken iPhones, asks for $7
Barnes & Noble hit with suit over Nook
A Cupertino, Calif.-based start-up claims the bookseller misappropriated its trade secrets in its design of a similar e-reader.• Spring Design seeks injunction barring Nook sales
Microsoft gives the MSN butterfly a makeover
It's given a new look to both its home page and the MSN butterfly logo. The main page now has just half as many links, with more videos and photos.• Microsoft to fix holes in Windows, Office
Mozilla: Firefox 3.6 won't be late
The first beta of Firefox 3.6 may have crossed the finish line weeks late, but Mozilla says the final version should still be done this year.• Firefox gets a quick fix
• Firefox gains Windows 7 features
Lack of global climate deal won't crush green tech
No matter what happens in Copenhagen next month, green-tech companies say industry and national governments will drive investment in the near term, an analysis shows.• Waste Management squeezes fuel from landfills
• LA changing its glow for more efficiency
• PetroAlgae signs deal with Indian Oil
Mac game: Art project or malware?
Is the Lose/Lose game a legitimate art project, or should it be flagged as malware because it deletes files?
Virtual goods: Duping the masses?
When is ad not an ad? When it's an offer for something other than what you think you are signing up for.• After onstage spat, Offerpal replaces CEO
• Offerpal Media mess gets stickier
Beatles copyright case down a legal rabbit hole
BlueBeat is streaming Beatles recordings for free and selling them for 25 cents apiece, claiming that they aren't the original recordings and therefore aren't copyright-protected.• Beatles catalog comes to USB
• No Doubt says 'no' to Band Hero depiction
Also of note
• An unofficial way to 'dislike' things on Facebook
• Best Buy to launch branded movie download service
• Wi-Fi-free iPhone officially lands in China
Microsoft released on Thursday a new position paper, "Privacy in the Cloud Computing Era: A Microsoft Perspective," that includes information about the remote storage and processing of personal information.
Privacy and security concerns continue to be a primary argument that cloud naysayers use against storing data and applications on the Internet. Big IT vendors and service providers like Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard will sooner or later be forced to take the cloud seriously or risk missing out on the whole next wave of IT consumption. And their large enterprise customers will expect them to offer cloud services with the appropriate levels of privacy and security measures in line with their business needs.
The interesting thing about this paper is that Microsoft takes surprisingly minimal responsibility for the data it will manage:
... Read moreExperts say Intel has been instrumental in driving down PC prices, one of the key indicators of competition and one charge New York's Attorney General cannot easily level against Intel in its antitrust lawsuit.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against Intel accusing it of paying computer makers rebates to illegally maintain its monopoly power and preventing AMD from gaining business with PC makers.
One of the operative charges in the complaint centers on prices. "Intel launched an illegal campaign to deprive AMD of distribution channels and consumers of product choice and lower prices," the complaint alleges.
Not so fast, say some experts. "Prices are falling, buyers are not complaining about Intel's loyalty discounts, and the lower prices produce obvious and immediate benefit for consumers," said Joshua D. Wright, professor at George Mason University School of Law, and a scholar in residence at the Federal Trade Commission until 2008.
"Given the intuitive and easy to grasp nature of the consumer benefits of discounting contracts in the Intel case, I suspect that judges will be less likely to condemn these practices without real proof of actual consumer harm. I'm skeptical that AMD, (New York), or the (Federal Trade Commission) will be able to produce that here," Wright said.
And prices continue to fall. One of the most recent examples of steep downward PC price pressure is ... Read more
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang seemed unsurprised by allegations made Wednesday by New York's attorney general that Intel has illegally tried to maintain its monopoly.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.
(Credit: Nvidia)"Where there's smoke there's probably fire. It blows my mind that's it's taken this long," Huang said in an interview Thursday, just after the graphics chipmaker posted solid fourth-quarter earnings. Nvidia competes with Intel in the PC graphics chip market.
"Even bribes and kickbacks can't stop somebody from buying our graphics processors," he said, referring to the allegations made in the lawsuit.
When contacted, Intel had no comment.
"Tactics good for AMD are tactics good for Nvidia," he added. "We have far superior products to Intel, that's how we survive by innovating far ahead of (Intel)."
Nvidia is locked in a legal battle with Intel, preventing Nvidia from making chipsets for Intel's "Nehalem" Core i series of chips--the lastest and greatest line of processors from Intel. Nvidia's Ion chipset--used in Apple MacBooks and Hewlett-Packard Netbooks, for example--has been very successful.
Huang also commented on the wave of next-generation tablets and media pads expected to hit the market next year, such as the rumored Apple tablet. Nvidia is already working with device makers who will use its Tegra chip in these designs next year.
"I think that's going to be the next big form factor," he said. "More and more people that use the iPhone would like to have a bigger iPhone. And the fact that 4g is coming--20 megabits per second. What can't you do. I think this (market) space is about to go nuts," he said.
"I really think we're on the cusp of our second personal computer revolution," he said.
