Friday, April 22, 2011

Firefox 4′s New User Interface « Alex Faaborg

Firefox 4′s New User Interface « Alex Faaborg

Tracking iPhone - Apple 2.0 by Fortune

Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine



The map at right shows, for anyone who cares, where an iPhone has traveled in the Northeast since last June.

Zazzle T-shirts: "Does Leadership Matter?" (Stocks)

Stock on YOUR Watch


Interesting that historically Microsoft stock apparently outperformed Apple!

Fortune Magazine: The problem with Microsoft...

Apparently Microsoft's recent "steady" state of business based mostly on Windows and Office brands is producing a lot of money, but not a lot of investor's enthusiasm...



Zazzle solution: Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers




But developers make bugs... or do they?

"My software never has bugs... it just develops random features!"





Fortune, again: Let's give Steve Ballmer some credit

Forbes: "[Microsoft] forgets we are not 'eyeballs,' we are people. We aren't talking about column inches or gross rating points. We're talking about our reputations and the risks--privacy issues aside--of their inflation and potential devaluation. Even if Facebook could take that valuation and compensate us $15 billion for the use of our reputations, we would have to split that among 58 million other people. That's $258.62 per person. Are your friends and your reputation for sale for $258.62? We thought not. Facebook isn't worth $15 billion, either."

Well, it now seems the criticism was way off base.

Not only did the deal help Microsoft best Google for an ad revenue-sharing agreement with Facebook (i.e., strategic value), but the price seems like a bargain in light of Goldman Sachs agreeing to invest at a $50 billion valuation (i.e., financial value).

Samsung vs Intel in Chip Leadership, SSD vs HDD

Samsung is a fascinating technology company,
steadily increasing its share of market in many areas.

A few years ago "Samsung" was forbidden word in Sony.
Since, Samsung has taken over in TV sales...

Now, tanks to huge increase of ARM-based mobile devices,
Intel's global lead on CPU sales is challenged... by Samsung.

Samsung Challenges Intel For Chip Leadership

It appears as if the chip industry had a much better 2010 than 2009,
as the global semiconductor business is estimated to have gained about $70 billion in sales last year
...
Intel increased its sales expand to $40.4 billion in 2010, which translates to a 25.5% improvement over 2009 and a 13.3% market share. Samsung, however, jumped by 59.1% from $17.5 billion to $27.8 billion last year, according to iSuppli. The industry average was 32.1% in iSuppli's charts and 30.9% in Gartner's result.


In this growth path there are some loses: Samsung's HDD manufacturing is losing money,
despite quite decent products and reasonable prices... So there is more HDD market consolidation expected.

Seagate May Buy Samsung HDD Unit

On the other side, SSD drives, based on Flash memory, are growing as weeds,
and Samsung is again one of the leaders... competing head to head with Intel...



Strangely, Intel has sold its its XScale division that was making ARM based chips years ago... Since it was not as profitable as x86 CPU business... Now, there are no mobile phones with Intel chips, and even Microsoft is porting Windows 8 to ARM based chips...