Live blog: Apple SDK announcement
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| Journalists and others wait for the iPhone SDK event to begin. Image: Jon Fortt |
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Apple (AAPL) this morning is announcing details about how it will open the iPhone and iPod touch to outside developers. The company has also promised new details about how enterprises can take advantage of the iPhone, putting it in more direct competition with Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile devices.
The event has not yet begun.
Intel: It’s not as bad as it looks
Memory prices are bruising profit margins, but CEO Paul Otellini says the chip giant can still thrive.
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| CEO Paul Otellini spent 2007 restoring investor faith in Intel; thanks to a slow economy and eroding memory prices, he’s got more work to do. Image: Intel |
Facing flagging profit margins and a skeptical Wall Street, Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini hosted investors at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters Wednesday. His message: Despite a weak U.S. economy and an ugly memory market, the Internet boom will supercharge revenues at the world’s largest chipmaker.
“We essentially think we can triple the market for our products,” Otellini told a gathering of financial analysts. “And this isn’t assuming that we have a full run of every market; it’s assuming we have a moderate view of success.”
But Intel’s growth story is a tougher sell today than it was a few months ago, which helps explain why the company took the unusual step of hosting investors at its Santa Clara headquarters instead of doing the event in New York as usual. And the tough sell is not just an issue for Intel; since November, when it became clear that the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis could tip the economy into recession, the tech industry in general has been hit hard. Stocks like Intel and Apple (AAPL) that were investor darlings in 2007 have suffered gut-wrenching losses; Intel has shed more than $35 billion in market capitalization, a quarter of its value, since December.
Making the iPhone work for business
By Jon Fortt and Michal Lev-Ram
Will Apple give up some control over the iPhone in order to court corporate customers?
That’s one of the juiciest questions surrounding a gathering on Apple’s (AAPL) campus Thursday, where CEO Steve Jobs has promised to open up the iPhone’s software secrets to the world for the first time. Apple’s invitation to the event also hinted at new business-friendly features for the device, and Silicon Valley is abuzz about what that could mean. Will the BlackBerry-toting masses be able to trade in the company smartphone for an iPhone?
Microsoft looks to steal Google’s thunder
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| Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talks about SharePoint updates. Image: Microsoft |
Hoping to draw attention away from Google’s (GOOG) online software efforts, Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates is set to announce the expansion of a program that lets business customers collaborate on the web.
On Monday at its SharePoint conference in Seattle, Gates is expected to say that Microsoft Online Services, which has been available since September to businesses with 5,000 or more employees, will be open to smaller companies later this year. The subscription-based service offers e-mail, productivity, and audio/video conferencing, and is available now in beta.
‘Cloud’ computing’s reliability gap
Online software may be the future of computing – but the truth is, it’s far from perfect.
- February 12: Research in Motion’s BlackBerry e-mail service goes on the blink for three hours, and slows again a week later.
- February 15: Problems with Amazon Web Services’ S3 online storage service takes several sites down for two hours.
- February 24: Google’s YouTube video service is knocked offline.
- February 26: Some customers of Microsoft’s Hotmail e-mail have their service unavailable for several hours.
Europe’s not finished with Microsoft yet
Heartwarming though it was, last week’s declaration of software openness from Microsoft (MSFT) won’t end its regulatory troubles. European antitrust watchdogs made that clear Wednesday.
The European Commission fined the software giant a record $1.3 billion, saying the company for three years overcharged competitors for information on how to make products that work with Microsoft’s dominant Windows operating system. Microsoft was quick to portray the fine as an echo of the past, noting that regulators have said Microsoft is now living up to its commitments.
But it’s not so simple. The fine also shows that European regulators still have a bone to pick with Microsoft, and that could make it tough for the company to take bold steps to acquire competitors and compete with Google (GOOG).
Apple to unveil iPhone software, enterprise features on March 6
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| On Wednesday, Apple sent this invitation to its iPhone software launch. Image courtesy of Apple. |
Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday sent invitations to its eagerly anticipated iPhone event, where it is expected to unveil tools that will allow developers to write software for the device. The company also hinted that “exciting new enterprise features” would be unveiled at the March 6 gathering on Apple’s campus.
Overseas sales could revive Apple
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| Image: Apple |
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Can Apple regain its status as a Wall Street darling?
So far 2008 has not been kind to the technology trendsetter. With U.S. iPod sales slowing and iPhone hype fading, investors have been seized by worries that the crew in Cupertino isn’t much of a growth story anymore. The stock has fallen 40 percent from its recent highs, losing some $50 billion in market value –and it isn’t clear what could turn things around.
It does seem certain that major relief won’t come from Apple’s (AAPL) newest products. This week’s update of the MacBook laptop line adds speed and memory, but no breathtaking design touches. The super-slim but pricey MacBook Air laptop that CEO Steve Jobs unveiled in January has met with mixed reviews, and won’t provide enough of a boost to make up for the iPod slowdown. And Apple TV, the second incarnation of Apple’s failed attempt to bring digital downloads to the television, doesn’t seem to be attracting an iPod-like following either; on Amazon (AMZN), it’s about as popular as a niche backup hard drive.
So where will Apple go for a sales boost to lift its stock? Perhaps overseas.
Even as U.S. tech spending slows, the market for high-tech gear and the opportunity for Apple to grow, is rapidly expanding in Europe and Asia. To wit: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd noted last week that emerging markets accounted for nearly half of the industry’s PC shipments at the end of 2007, and well over half of the growth.
Bowing to regulators, Microsoft opens up
Microsoft (MSFT) on Thursday announced that it will openly share details about how its most popular software works, a stance the company fought for years until European regulators forced its hand in September.
It’s not clear how Microsoft’s new policy will impact the technology landscape. But it seemed inevitable that the company would head in this direction after Microsoft lost a battle with European regulators over whether it was unfairly using its market dominance to make inroads into corporate networking software.
Under its new policy, Microsoft will set up a website showing software developers how to write programs that freely communicate with systems based on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and future versions of the programs. In the past, competitors have complained that because Microsoft’s Windows operating systems dominate the corporate market, it has been able to use its inside knowledge to gain unfair advantage in the market for servers.
Microsoft had jealously guarded the secrets it is now freely distributing. The company had argued that its application program interfaces, or APIs, were painstakingly developed and that it should not be forced to share them with competitors. Even with its new openness, Microsoft believes its secrets have value; while the public is free to view the code and use it on personal projects, those who incorporate it into a commercial product or use it for business purposes will have to pay a “low royalty rate” to Microsoft.
Microsoft readies assault on Yahoo board
Like a lion chasing a weakened gazelle, Microsoft knows it will capture Yahoo eventually. The challenge now is to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible.
To that end, Microsoft (MSFT) is moving in for the kill. The software giant is poised to take its takeover bid of more than $40 billion directly to Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders, overthrowing a Yahoo board of directors that dismissed the offer as too low. Microsoft executives hope that by forcing a shareholder vote, they can get speedier regulatory approval and avoid having to fork over billions more for Yahoo.
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