Big news from big business this week. 3Com has been bought by HP. Dave explains the significance of the deal and gets oddly nostalgic. IBM has been in the news too, increasing its green technology business, and investing more and more in emerging markets. I take a closer look below.

Google has been making headlines too - nothing new there. What is new is its programming language, Go, which has some people angry and some quite excited. Plus: Samsung is developing its own operating system for mobile platforms. We take a look at what it's got to offer, and explain why it's bad news for Nokia.

I hope you enjoy the issue. If you do, why not visit our blog? And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston.

Hazel Butters
CEO
Prompt Communications

3Com finally succumbs to HP's advances

By Dave Wilby

When I was a fledgling journalist cutting my teeth in the world of IT, my speciality was the brave new world of high-speed networking. Back then, much like in Premiership football today, there was a 'Big Four' of networking hardware vendors that dominated the scene: Bay Networks, Cabletron Systems, 3Com and Cisco Systems.

Bay was snapped up by Nortel in 1998 and only really survives in the shape of those little blue Netgear LAN boxes. Cabletron struggled to satisfy both low and high end customers and broke up into its constituent parts at the turn of the millennium.

This week 3Com announced it would be acquired by HP in a deal worth $2.7 billion (₤1.6 Billion) sometime in the first half of 2010. Compare this to the estimated $9.1 billion shelled out for Bay back in the nineties!

So that just leaves Cisco. Apparently that company is doing okay, holding its own over on the West Coast somewhere, toying with the Dow Jones and quietly ticking over with its 65,000 employees and annual revenue topping $36 billion.

Back To Top

Green growth from Big Blue

By Hazel Butters

Big Blue is going green in interesting areas. IBM is increasing its commitment to green technology and looking towards emerging markets for this growth. The company has announced three new data centre deals, located in areas that you wouldn't necessarily associate with green technology.

IBM has helped Cosan, a sugar energy group in Sao Paulo, Brazil, redesign its infrastructure; it's built a new data centre for Slovak Telekom in Bratislava, Slovakia; and it signed a deal to build and manage a green data centre for an Indian subsidiary of a confectionary company.

More interesting than the deals themselves, and more telling, is IBM's philosophy on where green technology is finding a foothold. According to Steve Sams, VP of IBM's Global Site and Facilities Services, emerging markets have much more demand than developed countries.

There are two factors that are driving the emerging regions towards green IT. The first is that there are concerns about the cost of energy, especially in areas with limited access to power. The second is that with less legacy infrastructure to deal with, businesses have the ability to skip older and less efficient technology without it raising costs or affecting their work environment

It is an amazing sight to see these initiatives coming from IBM, a company long associated with a culture of dark suits. Interestingly, green suits it just fine.

Back To Top

Open source a Go at Google

By James Gerber

Google started with a search engine. Its services grew to include an email client, browser, RSS reader - even an operating system is in the works. Now, it has added to its arsenal of tools for world domination once more, with its own programming language: Go.

Some are calling it 'evil' because Google is taking a name already in use by another programming language. But let's take a look at what it does beyond its name. It was built to be simple, concurrent and have a high degree of performance. Its syntax is similar to popular languages such as C, C++ and Python (which Google had its own proprietary variant of for AppEngine).

The new language is built with Web 2.0 communication in mind, handling many different processes at a time with ease. Best of all, it's open source - an atypical move for a company that often guards its source code, although it has open sourced features before. Now, if a developer wants to, he can write an application in Google Go, upload it to Google Code, open Google Chrome, find it on Google search (Google Google?), and run it on Google OS (soon). And we can sit back and marvel at it all with Google Earth.

Back To Top

Samsung has big Bada news for Symbian

By Dave Wilby

Samsung's decision this week to develop its own in-house open mobile operating system looks like having some serious repercussions for Nokia's Symbian OS.

Samsung senior VP Don Joo Lee told DigiTimes that while the company would continue to use the Windows Mobile and Android platforms alongside new Samsung OS 'Bada', it probably wouldn't roll out any new Symbian-based models in 2010.

Dr Hosoo Lee, executive VP and head of Media Solution Center at Samsung said: "Bada will be Samsung's landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world."

Samsung's support is increasingly valuable in the global marketplace. In 2009 its handset shipments will top 200 million, with this volume projected to grow by up to 20 percent in 2010. Samsung is currently the top handset vendor in the US, UK, France, Russia, Netherlands and Chile.

The company's new Bada OS will be open to app developers, lending itself perfectly to consumer entertainment handsets and smartphones. The official website (www.bada.com) opened on 10 November, while an official SDK launch event in London is expected in December.

Back To Top

13th November 2009

Welcome

Technology News

3Com finally succumbs to HP’s advances

Green growth from Big Blue

Open source a Go at Google

Samsung has big Bada news for Symbian

Media News

US

UK

Interpol Stolen Works of Art

Contact Details

Get your own newsletter

The team behind this newsletter is available to create yours.

Prompt will help you build and sustain rapport with prospects, customers, staff or analysts, whether you want to write daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

Call us on 0208 996 1650 or email to find out more.

By Laurie Santalucia

On Monday this week, we wished Firefox a happy birthday - the open source browser officially turned five years old! To celebrate, we've decided to throw some interesting statistics out there about the second most popular browser around (to Microsoft Internet Explorer).

Did you know:

• Firefox holds 24.07% of the recorded usage share of web browsers (as of October 2009)
• Prior to its launch in 2004, Firefox went through two name changes. It was known first as 'Phoenix' and then 'Firebird' before being released under the now household name 'Firefox'
• Firefox is available in 75 languages, ranging from Estonian to Macedonian (and beyond)
• There are over 6,000 ways to customize Firefox

US

By Adrien Bignet

InTech editors Grag Hale and Nick Sheble, and associate editor Ellen Fussell Policastro have been let go by the publication. Susan Colwell, the publication manager, is to take over editorial duties.

Webby Awards has launched a daily newsletter at Netted.net. The newsletter, authored by Peter Hyman, will set out to share the latest, coolest and most useful tools on the internet as well as a digital tip sheet that will recommend one web site, application and/or service a day.

PC and console gaming website, Shacknews, is losing its co-editor Nick Breckon. While no replacement has been named, Chris Faylor and Aaron Linde will retain their positions as co-editors.

Former CNET producer, Veronica Belmont, will head up MaximumPC's new, bi-weekly column, Trending Topics, which will showcase her thoughts on Web 2.0 and social media. She will still continue her work on the weekly Tekzilla video podcast.

Back To Top

UK

By Ellie Turner

The Observer, the Guardian's troubled Sunday paper, is to close three of its monthly magazines as part of a New Year overhaul. The award winning Observer Food supplement will stay, along with three new weekly sections - news, sport and an expanded Review section. The existing monthly glossy supplements, Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Woman and Observer Music Monthly will all close.

A new monthly magazine called Retail Focus is to be launched by TLC Media. It will be aimed at existing stores (independents and established brands) visual merchandisers and designers. The editor has been named as Gemma Emslie.

Public Sector and Local Government Building Magazine has replaced editorial assistant Marika Cooke with Elizabeth Banks.

Back To Top