<IT WORLD> Apple, Google set pace
By Martin J Young
The primary movers and shakers in the technology world over the past 12 months
have been Apple and Google. With its share price up nearly 135% last year and
over US$6 billion in revenue, Apple has gone from strength to strength. The
introduction of its ground breaking iPhone, essentially a tiny high powered
Unix computer that also makes phone calls, has revolutionized the mobile phone
industry.
Advanced wi-fi capabilities and small-scale web browsing are its key features,
enough to help sell 5 million units since the iPhone was introduced last July
and keeping the company on track to
meet its boast that 10 million would be bought in the product's first year. The
company has increased its number of retail stores, with over 200 outlets
generating 20% of total revenue, an increase of over 40% on the fourth quarter
of the previous year.
Last year Google reported a more-than 50% gain in third-quarter revenue to
$4.23 billion compared with $2.69 billion in the same time the previous year.
With a number of new services planned for 2008, analysts predict that shares in
the company could reach $1,000 from the present $680 mark.
The social networking revolution put Facebook into the top website contenders
last year as it rapidly gained ground on MySpace, a similar community-based
portal. Industry analysts predict the social networking craze will peak this
year, arguing that both websites are inherently limiting since there is little
else to do once you have befriended everyone.
Software giant Microsoft has been struggling to persuade users to switch to
Vista, its latest incarnation of Windows, as a number of compatibility and
security issues continue to plague the operating system. It hopes the release
of Service Pack 1 early this year will help to smooth out the initial glitches
and people will slowly start to move from XP.
Last year was also a period for record security breaches and data loss,
according to industry groups. The loss or theft or personal information such as
credit card and social security numbers has soared as hackers stay ahead of
software security patches and users struggle to keep up. More is being spent by
governments, agencies, companies and institutions to protect their ever
increasing volumes of data with more elaborate security measures, encryption
and firewalls.
San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center lists almost 80 million records
reported compromised in the US last year, nearly a fourfold increase from the
20 million records reported in 2006. A major contributing factor is the
increase in wireless communications, which are far more vulnerable than hard
wired systems. Hackers are learning to bypass security safeguards faster than
ever as wifi adoption and popularity grows.
Hardware
Bench testing and comparisons have begun on AMD’s new Spider platform and quad
core Phenom processors. Industry professionals are now reporting on how the new
CPU’s face up to their Intel counterparts. AMD has had a tough year with the
long-awaited release of its quad core processors offering
lower-than-anticipated clock speeds (2.3GHz) and bugs with the Barcelona core.
Intel on the other hand has won the 45 nanometer race and has been quick to
introduce new platforms. The two mainstream Phenom chips available today are
the 9500 (2.2GHz) and 9600 (2.3GHz), with the 9700 (2.4GHz) scheduled for the
first quarter. When tested on equivalent platforms against Intel’s older Core 2
Duo E6600 the Phenom’s were roughly evenly matched. However they could not
reach the performance delivered by the Penryn Core 2 Extreme QX9650. Despite
the fact that the AMD chip offers four individual cores whereas the Intel quad
core is effectively two dual cores using a shared bus interface, the lower end
Phenoms still couldn’t catch the Penryns when tested on equivalent platforms.
It looks like AMD fans will have to wait for the release of the unlocked 9900
(2.6GHz) Black Edition in the first quarter of this year to get a real
competition going.
Browsers
AOL announced in a formal statement last week the end of an era for the
Netscape Navigator browser. Following the decline of its market share and loyal
user base the Microsoft-rattling browser first launched in the late '90s has
finally been culled. The announcement from the owner of AOL stated: ''While
internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in
attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful
in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer.'' It went on to
say: ''AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves
little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a
point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL's current business focus and
the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically acclaimed
products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded
browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt
Firefox."
Security patches for Navigator 9 and all previous versions will be available
until February 1st and discontinued thereafter.
Gaming
Research by leading industry authorities has revealed that 2007 has been one of
the most successful years for video games. Sales have been at an all-time high
especially in the UK with over $3 billion generated in the past 12 months as
computer games increase in popularity. Some titles such as Halo 3 have
delivered a success usually reserved for blockbuster movies, other successful
releases over the past year included Super Mario Galaxy, Bioshock and Final
Fantasy XII.
Industry
news
Bill Gates is preparing to end his daily involvement Microsoft with an
announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month. He will
still remain chairman of the software giant and continue to advise on primary
development projects. His final keynote is also likely to include announcements
on Xbox licensing and new technologies along side the Windows Media Center
powered digital home of the future. The following week in San Francisco, Steve
Jobs is expected to show us round the iHome at his Macworld keynote, a similar
concept powered by … you’ve got it: iTunes!
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
Hardware
