Technologizer

Analyst Predicts Rise in PC Sales

Friday, September 18, 2009

IDG is reporting that sales of PC desktops and laptops are rising ahead of Windows 7’s October 22 launch date. The strong demand is unexpected, analysts said. PC sales in July and August caught Manish Nigam, director of technology research in Asia for Credit Suisse, off guard, IDG is reporting. Credit Suisse had held the expectation [...]

Microsoft’s Netbook Problem

Friday, July 24, 2009

22 Comments

The persisting popularity of netbooks has been a major drain on Microsoft’s Windows client licensing revenue. The worldwide economic downturn has driven many people to purchase cheaper machines, but I believe that the netbook’s ascension also reflects changing consumer tastes. Windows client licensing revenue fell $1 billion from last year, and Microsoft’s unearned revenue from multi-year [...]

Recession Slams PC Industry, Shipments Shrink

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

1 Comment

PC shipments are set to decline for the first time since 2001, iSuppli said Tuesday. The call reverses an earlier one which had said the industry would be able to eke out a small gain for the year. In any case, it appears that the severe recession is at fault for the pullback. A four percent [...]

Apple May Be Immune to Economy, But Stores Aren’t

Friday, April 24, 2009

7 Comments

Apple certainly made it through this past quarter in great shape. Nobody is complaining about the company’s results, which by all accounts were stellar. However, Cupertino does have a retail arm, and like any other it’s beginning to struggle. Average revenue per store is down 17 percent – falling from $7.1 million in the year ago [...]

A Bad Quarter for Microsoft. But Not Necessarily a Sea Change.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

3 Comments

Today, Microsoft’s released its third quarter financial reports, and for the first time, saw a decline in its year-to-year quarterly results. The company reported that its quarterly revenues were $13.65 billion, approximately 6 percent lower than they were this time last year. That missed Thomson Reuters’ sales forecast of $14.09 billion. Its net income was $2.98 [...]

Sony Drops PS2 Price to Under a Hundred Bucks

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

0 Comments

Responding to the unfavorable economic environment, Sony is slashing the price of its PlayStation 2 gaming console to under $100. The price cut is also aimed at luring new gamers to the venerable platform, extending the PS2’s life cycle for the foreseeable future. Aside from competing on price, the PS2 has a solid library of games [...]

The Last Will and Testament of Circuit City

Saturday, March 7, 2009

67 Comments

For Circuit City, it passed for good news: On Friday, a press release trumpeted the “record shopper turnout” at the failed retailer’s going-out-of-business sale and said that the liquidation proceedings were ahead of schedule. All U.S. stores are therefore closing forever as of tomorrow. And so I made what will almost certainly be my last [...]

The Tragic Last Days of Circuit City

Monday, March 2, 2009

30 Comments

Liquidation: It’s an ugly word for the ugly process of shutting down a retailer by selling off stuff little by little until there’s nothing left that anyone’s going to buy at any price. And my most recent visit to my local branch of the soon-to-be-defunct Circuit City in the Bay Area was…ugly. Literally. The place, [...]

Gartner Predicts Significant Drop in PC Sales

Monday, March 2, 2009

6 Comments

A new research note from analyst firm Garner predicts that the PC industry will “suffer its sharpest unit decline in history” in 2009. Gartner predicts a nearly 12% reduction in sales from 2009, but noted that many PC makers are and their suppliers are equipped to adapt to the changing reality of the market. “The PC [...]

Nokia Cuts R&D, Production

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

0 Comments

Singing the macro-economic woes, Finnish telecommuncations giant Nokia has decided to cut production and to close one of its R&D sites. Ultimately, the company has failed to capitalize on the strength of the smartphone market. Nokia is reducing production at its plant in Salo, Finland, and has begun to phase in furlough days that will affect [...]

Twitter May Begin Charging for Commercial Accounts

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

4 Comments

Twitter may yet prove that it is more than the gilded plaything of venture capitalists , and a productivity killer for those of us who tweet while we should be working. In an interview with UK-based Marketing newspaper, co-founder Biz Stone said that the company was identifying ways to charge for commercial accounts. Stone told Marketing, [...]

Apple Store Traffic Flat, But Sales Are Down

Monday, February 2, 2009

4 Comments

Apple has taken quite a bit of pride in its successful retail operation, and rightly so. It has grown at a rate not seen by other electronics outlets as of late, and sales have been consistently higher every quarter. Not so for the holidays. Traffic was essentially flat in the fourth quarter, down 1.8 percent. The [...]

Make it Stop — More Tech Jobs Slashed

Thursday, January 29, 2009

0 Comments

Since my last post mid-month, we’ve seen some acceleration in tech layoffs, and the overall jobs picture continues to look poor. Another 588,000 applied for initial unemployment benefits overall this week, which was worse than experts had forecast. The continuing rise of unemployment claims indicates the recession continues to intensify, and we’ll get a [...]

Yahoo Releases Fourth Quarter Financial Results

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

2 Comments

Today, Yahoo shared its fourth quarter financial results with investors, the first financial news it’s had since naming Carol Bartz as CEO. While revenue was relatively flat compared to 2007, Yahoo experienced a net loss of $303 million, compared to a net income of $206 million in 2008, due in part to strategic decisions that [...]

Has Microsoft Flight Simulator Been Canceled after 29 Years?

Friday, January 23, 2009

17 Comments

Reports this morning have it that Microsoft’s venerable Flight Simulator game may be realistically simulating the fate of Pan Am, Eastern, and TWA: Supposedly the Microsoft layoffs announced yesterday include the program’s entire development team, and it’s therefore being discontinued. I hope it’s a false alarm. I’ve never sat inside FS’s cockpit even once, but [...]

What Does Microsoft’s Bad News Day Means For the Future of Windows?

Thursday, January 22, 2009

7 Comments

Quarterly financial results are in from Microsoft, and they’re pretty ugly: The company’s revenue fell short of guidance by $900 million, and net income was down by 11 percent. In reaction to these numbers and general economic gloom, the company says it’s eliminating 1400 jobs today and a total of 5000 positions over the next [...]