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IBM (IBM)

IBM has announced it is creating smarter buildings, offices, and urban infrastructure worldwide. With intelligence embedded into the physical assets of an organization, IBM is helping clients create a command center to manage not only their data center and IT design, but also the physical assets as diverse as water mains, office equipment, door locks, printers, heating systems and fire hydrants.
IBM believes smarter buildings are key to the economic and environmental sustainability of urban environments.

Feb 23 · 10:22:00 AM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Larry Etter

IBM (IBM)

IBM today announced an enhanced strategy to help clients maximize benefits of virtualization with integrated service management by focusing on four key priorities: consolidation, management, automation and optimized delivery. This strategy is based on a comprehensive view of data center virtualization including servers, storage, networking, software and services.
Analysts believe worldwide revenue for virtualization related ecosystem is expected to exceed $46 billion by 2013, so this is a big move for IBM.

Feb 23 · 10:19:00 AM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Larry Etter

Intel (INTC)

Today’s New York Times has a very interesting article “For Chipmakers, the Next Front in a Costly War is in Smartphones,” which makes a case why leading semiconductor manufacturers Intel and GlobalFoundries are poised to take market share in smartphone processors. GlobalFoundries is the manufacturing division that AMD spun out last year, and will do the semiconductor manufacturing for other companies at “what is arguably the most advanced chip factory ever built.” Jim Ballingall, VP for marketing, stated “[t]he first one out there with these types of products [for smartphones] is really the one that wins in the marketplace.”
Regarding Intel, the article is correct that one of that company’s keys to its success has been its manufacturing expertise. While it is very expensive to build semiconductor foundries, doing so enables INTC to manufacture at the leading edge of cost and performance. (According to EETimes, Intel manufactures semiconductors at a line width of 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, going to 32 nm. http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223100024&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_newsRSS) But it’s worth noting that while INTC has been spectacularly successful making X86 architecture microprocessors, it hasn’t matched that record with chips for other applications. As the article notes, Intel is competing against other companies producing ARM-architecture chips for smartphones, and INTC’s Atom microprocessors “can cost two to three times as much” and “consume too much power for many smaller gadgets.” The other problem for Intel is software—since the ARM is more common, there is more smartphone software written for it. Regading GlobalFoundries, I disagree with Mr. Ballingall to some extent. While leading edge manufacturers should be able to make chips with the best price/performance, that is not a sufficient condition "to win in the marketplace," or even a necessary one. The chips that win are the ones that power the smartphones that wind up being the most successful in the market, which are chosen by the consumers, wireless carriers and smartphone makers. There are many criteria for getting “designed in,” by the smartphone vendors such as Apple and Nokia, including cost, performance, vendor (including the ARM suppliers), features and architecture. And each time there’s a new smartphone, there is at least the possibility of a new design in process, so no designer or manufacturer of smartphone chips has an ongoing lock.

Feb 22 · 9:13:00 AM · Source: The New York Times
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by Stuart Skalka

Texas Instruments (TXN)

Texas Instruments has announced that Ralph W. Babb, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Comerica Incorporated and Comerica Bank, has been elected to TI's board of directors, effective March 15.

Feb 19 · 2:35:00 PM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Larry Etter

IBM (IBM)

IBM has been awarded a contract to modernize the U.S. Government's Acquisition and Procurement System. IBM will work to modernize a system that federal agencies and their suppliers use to source equipment, supplies, information technology (IT) and telecommunications services. The award made by the U.S. General Services Administration has a contract value of $74.4 million over an eight-year period.
This is another feather in the cap of IBM's services push.

Feb 19 · 2:32:00 PM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Larry Etter

HP (HPQ)

HP today introduced five point-and-shoot digital cameras and three camcorders with features such as LCD displays, up to 5X optical zoom and fashionable colors.
This expands the company's role in this marketplace.

Feb 19 · 2:26:00 PM · Source: Company Press Release
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by Larry Etter

IBM (IBM)

IBM today said its research labs have developed a new tool that will allow a user capture, reuse and share their web browsing history with friends and collegues.
The technology was developed in the company's West Coast lab and is now available on the IBM Research Labs Experimental Technology site that allows people to try, share and provide feedback on emerging technologies.

Feb 18 · 9:58:00 AM
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by Larry Etter

HP (HPQ)

HP today announced the expansion of its extensive retail publishing portfolio with new partners and solutions designed to help retailers profitably grow their in-store photo offerings and capitalize on the projected $73 billion retail photo opportunity.
HP keeps pushing into this part of the market.

Feb 18 · 9:53:00 AM
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by Rich Pike

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