<IT
WORLD> A learning Curve for Apple By Martin J
Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - For the first
time in many months, Apple's iPhone is not making
all of the noise in the tech news columns.
Drowning it out is Research In Motion's
Blackberry, with its latest smart-phone, called
"Curve", which outsold the iPhone in the first
quarter. The figures from market researcher NPD
Group did not indicate unit sales figures but did
state that RIM's US market share climbed 15%
annually while Apple's fell 10%.
The
Curve's success came through its widespread
availability through four carriers in the US in
addition to a buy-one-get-one promotion from
Verizon Wireless. Apple fell off the tree by
sticking to an exclusive iPhone deal with only one
carrier, AT&T. If Apple wants to get back in
the running it may be forced into giving
up exclusivity and
entering a deal with Verizon Wireless and other
carriers. The Blackberry now enjoys the top slot
in the US consumer smart-phone market with 50%.
Software The demise of Windows
Vista maybe even closer than we thought following
reports this week of Microsoft stating that it
will no longer be shipping the sinking operating
system once Windows 7 is released. Support for all
versions of Vista will also end in April 2012.
The company is reassuring enterprises and
individuals that Windows 7 will definitely run
better than Vista. They are now admitting that
Vista was slow responding, over-cautious with
security alerts and not very efficient with system
resources. Windows 7 will also operate faster than
Vista on older hardware, according to Microsoft,
and offer high-speed file transfer features for
easier PC-to-PC file copying. User profiles in
previous versions of Windows have always been
cumbersome to transfer. The Easy Transfer function
native to Windows 7 will help to alleviate some of
those headaches.
Microsoft has yet to
announce a release date for the full version, but
it is expected to ship later this year.
Employees in the software giant's Response
Point phone system, Net Micro Framework, and MSN
Direct Service divisions are facing gloomy times -
announcements this week indicated that 3,000 jobs
are likely to be cut. A 28% staff reduction is
also expected in the game advertising firm,
Massive, which the company acquired in 2006.
Microsoft pledged to continue support for existing
customers of affected product lines.
Internet The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
has up until the present operated under the
control of the US Department of Commerce. That
contract expires in September and ICANN's fate
remains undecided, at least in public. The
European Union, for one, wants the US to
relinquish its grip on the assignment of Internet
domain names so that the rest of the world can
participate.
The non-profit organization
was established in 1998 to democratically manage
the evolution of the Internet; today it has
control over the 1.5 billion Internet addresses
currently in use. EU Information Society
Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that although
ICANN has done a good job so far, a government
department of one country should not be solely
responsible for Internet functions that affect
millions of people in all other countries.
The Internet organization's ties with the
US end on September 30 and motions are being filed
to ensure it runs with transparency and
accountability. This would allow judicial review
by an international tribunal, replacing the
California courts that currently do the job.
Reding went on to state: "I trust that
President [Barack] Obama will have the courage,
the wisdom and the respect for the global nature
of the Internet to pave the way in September for a
new, more accountable, more transparent, more
democratic and more multilateral form of Internet
governance."
A group of 12 nations,
including representatives from North America,
South America, Europe and Africa, Asia and
Australia, has been proposed to undertake the
governance of ICANN though we'll have to wait
until September to find out the fate of the
Internet overseer.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2009
Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contact us about
sales, syndication and republishing.)
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
Software
