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Hard drive shortage expected to hurt consumers most – Computerworld

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Flooding in Thailand is wreaking havoc on hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturers.

While vendors are expected to keep their most valuable customers – computer system manufacturers — supplied with inventory, the consumer retail market will likely be hit hard by shortages and price increases, analysts say.

Two industry research firms, IHS iSuppli and IDC, have predicted that the overall market shortage due to factory flooding in Thailand will reach 25% to 28% over the next six months.

The largest producer of hard drives, Western Digital is expected to be hit the hardest as IDC predicts that up to 75% of its production will be temporarily shut down, IDC said today.

IHS iSuppli said fourth quarter hard drive shipments will decline by 27.7% to 125 million units, from 173 million shipped in the third quarter.

Users should expect to see price increases of some 10% over the third quarter.

“You’ll start to see PC makers increase prices for some products. So indirectly, consumers will face some higher prices because of higher HDD prices,” said John Rydning, a vice president of research at IDC.

Rydning said he also expects that higher prices for USB-attached HDD products.

via Hard drive shortage expected to hurt consumers most – Computerworld.

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Latest in Web Tracking: Stealthy ‘Supercookies’ – WSJ.com

August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Major websites such as MSN.com and Hulu.com have been tracking people’s online activities using powerful new methods that are almost impossible for computer users to detect, new research shows.

The new techniques, which are legal, reach beyond the traditional “cookie,” a small file that websites routinely install on users’ computers to help track their activities online. Hulu and MSN were installing files known as “supercookies,” which are capable of re-creating users’ profiles after people deleted regular cookies, according to researchers at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley.

via Latest in Web Tracking: Stealthy ‘Supercookies’ – WSJ.com.

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Microsoft Azure Does Big Data As A Service — InformationWeekMicrosoft Azure Does Big Data As A Service – windows Blog

July 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Microsoft unveiled new software tools and services designed to let researchers use its Azure cloud platform to analyze extremely large data sets from a diverse range of disciplines–and it’s borrowing technology from archrival Google to help gird the platform.

The software maker unveiled the initiative, known as Project Daytona, at its Research Faculty Summit in Redmond, Wash., this week. The service was developed under the Microsoft extreme computing group’s Cloud Research Engagement program, which aims to find new applications for cloud platforms.

“Daytona gives scientists more ways to use the cloud without being tied to one computer or needing detailed knowledge of cloud programming–ultimately letting scientists be scientists,” said Dan Reed, corporate VP for Microsoft’s technology policy group.

To sort and crunch data, Daytona uses a runtime version of Google’s open-license MapReduce programming model for processing large data sets. The Daytona tools deploy MapReduce to Windows Azure virtual machines, which subdivide the information into even smaller chunks for processing. The data is then recombined for output.

AMEX launched a free dashboard to help customers manage social media.

Find out how this tool will help you suceed (even if you aren’t an AMEX customer).

Daytona is geared toward scientists in healthcare, education, environmental sciences, and other fields where researchers need–but don’t always have access to–powerful computing resources to analyze and interpret large data sets, such as disease vectors or climate observations. Through the service, users can upload pre-built research algorithms to Microsoft’s Azure cloud, which runs a across a highly distributed network of powerful computers

via Microsoft Azure Does Big Data As A Service — InformationWeekMicrosoft Azure Does Big Data As A Service – windows Blog.

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SharePoint 2010 Used Mainly for Collaboration; Enterprise Content Management to Grow, AIIM Says

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Doug Miles, head of the AIIM Market Intelligence Division, has been thinking along the same lines, and, through AIIM, has published research that attempts to answer some of those questions.

Using SharePoint for ECM. How well is it meeting expectations? surveyed 674 members of the AIIM community in April and May this year.

 

He says SharePoint itself has developed since its first iteration into a solution that does just about everything for intranets, to enterprise collaboration, to business intelligence and business process management with an adoption rate of 60% to 70%, he says. Some figures that are worth noting about SharePoint in the enterprise include:

Only 8% of SharePoint users have upgraded to 2010 version so far; 21% are deploying 2010 as a first use.

36% say they have SharePoint “in use across the enterprise for content management.” Included are 11% with no other content systems; 19% running unconnected ECM/DM/RM systems

A quarter consider their stored content in SharePoint to be doubling every two years or less and 5% have over 10TB of data already.

Collaboration and intranet are the most widely used application areas, then document management and search.

via SharePoint 2010 Used Mainly for Collaboration; Enterprise Content Management to Grow, AIIM Says.

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86% of IT professionals admit reliance on paper records | Laundry Services

January 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The findings of a survey by document management software company, Version One, highlight that 86% of senior IT professionals are still reliant on paper records with over half of these (51%) stating that they are VERY reliant. Just 1% of respondents state that they “hardly ever” have to rely on paper records while the remaining 13% admit they are “occasionally reliant”. Version One carried out the research with 86 senior IT professionals (IT directors and managers) across a range of UK and Irish public and private sector organisations.

Senior IT professionals have mixed ideas on what would persuade them to dispense with paper records in favour of implementing an electronic document management (EDM) system. 32% of those surveyed said that they would most likely switch to EDM in order to improve customer service while 20% admitted that receiving assurance that electronic documents are legally permissible (such as with HM Revenue and Customs) would be a key driver for eliminating paper.

The remaining 48% of respondents indicate that they would be persuaded to move away from paper records if they were assured of all the following in relation to electronic document management: document security, customer service benefits, legislative admissibility and environmental benefits.

via 86% of IT professionals admit reliance on paper records | Laundry Services.

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Tablet Tipping Point Means The End Of Microsoft (As We Know It) — InformationWeek

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m revising my thesis based on research published Sunday by Goldman Sachs that is, in a word, stunning. Goldman’s analysts dropped a pair of notes in which they predict the PC industry will grow next year not by the mid-teens number most in the industry expect, but by just 8%.

At the same time, Goldman thinks tablet shipments will increase by more than 500%! And the real game changer, according to the investment bank’s world-class equity research team, is that all those tablet shipments will cannibalize PC sales at a rate of 35% in the next year alone. In other words, one in three PC sales will be lost to tablets in 2011, if Goldman Sachs is right.

Unless something changes real soon, almost none of those tablets will be running Windows software. “A tablet response is still not forthcoming,” Goldman’s Sarah Friar said of Microsoft, in her note. How much revenue is at risk? If tablets knock down Windows sales by a third, that adds up to about a $5.5 billion haircut to Microsoft’s top line. But it’s more complicated than that.

With so much platform competition, Microsoft will be forced to lower the licensing fees it charges to OEMs. “With a multitude of operating environments popping up on tablets, Microsoft may not be able to capture a dominant share in this segment of the market. For PC vendors, this may mean that they finally have a powerful negotiating tool for OS pricing,” says Goldman Sachs hardware analyst Bill Shope, in his note.

via Tablet Tipping Point Means The End Of Microsoft (As We Know It) — InformationWeek.

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Just in Time for the Holidays: The Largest Insider-Trading Case Ever? – Law Blog – WSJ

November 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Wall Street Journal broke the news over the weekend that federal authorities are about to bring a huge insider-trading case against a host of financial players. According to Saturday’s story, the case could “ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders, and analysts across the nation.”

The criminal and civil probes are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, people close to the investigation say. Some charges could be brought before year-end.

One focus of the criminal investigation is whether nonpublic information was passed along by independent analysts and consultants who work for companies that provide “expert network” services to hedge funds and mutual funds.

In another aspect of the probes, prosecutors and regulators are examining whether Goldman Sachs bankers leaked information about transactions, including health-care mergers, in ways that benefited certain investors, the people say. Goldman declined to comment.

Independent analysts and research boutiques also are being examined. John Kinnucan, a principal at Broadband Research LLC in Portland, Ore., sent an email on Oct. 26 to roughly 20 hedge-fund and mutual-fund clients telling of a visit by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Today two fresh faced eager beavers from the FBI showed up unannounced (obviously) on my doorstep thoroughly convinced that my clients have been trading on copious inside information,” the email said. “(They obviously have been recording my cell phone conversations for quite some time, with what motivation I have no idea.) We obviously beg to differ, so have therefore declined the young gentleman’s gracious offer to wear a wire and therefore ensnare you in their devious web.”

via Just in Time for the Holidays: The Largest Insider-Trading Case Ever? – Law Blog – WSJ.

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RT @complexd: Market Research: 88% of FTSE 100 Companies at Risk of Litigation – http://tinyurl.com/39ujvnm

October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

RT @complexd: Market Research: 88% of FTSE 100 Companies at Risk of Litigation – http://tinyurl.com/39ujvnm

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Corporations go gaga over Android – Computerworld

September 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Corporations are jumping on the Google smartphone bandwagon, with Android device growth outpacing Apple’s iPhone 20-fold in the last three months, a market researcher said today.

An August survey of over 1,600 corporate IT buyers conducted by ChangeWave Research found that 16% of those polled said their firms were using Android-based smartphones. That’s a six-point jump since May, representing a 60% increase in three months.

During the same period, the number of IT purchasers who said that their companies used Apple’s iPhone climbed one point to 31%, an increase of just over 3%.

Research in Motion continues to be the most popular smartphone manufacturer in corporate circles, said Paul Carton, who heads the research side at ChangeWave. BlackBerry devices are present in 66% of the surveyed companies. That’s a drop of three points and a slide of 4% since May.

via Corporations go gaga over Android – Computerworld.

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1-in-5 U.S. consumers plan to buy Apple’s iPad – Computerworld

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Positive press and word of mouth from very satisfied owners has convinced one-in-five U.S. consumers to buy an Apple iPad, a survey published today said.

In a poll of nearly 3,400 consumers, ChangeWave Research found that 7% are “very likely,” and 13% “somewhat likely” to buy an iPad at some point. Those numbers, noted Paul Carton, ChangeWave’s research director, are significantly higher than the 4% and 9% who answered the same way in a February survey taken after Apple CEO Steve Jobs had unveiled the media tablet, but before it went on sale in early April.

While 19% of those who plan to purchase an iPad said that they would do so in the next 90 days, the majority of consumers who want an Apple tablet will buy one in six months or more. And that has to make Apple happy this holiday season.

“Apple’s going to have an iPad holiday,” said Carton. “We’ll see a holiday spending wave on the iPad.”

Of the consumers who said they plan to buy an iPad, 24% said they would do so in 6 to 12 months, with another 24% saying they would pull the buying trigger in 12 to 24 months.

via 1-in-5 U.S. consumers plan to buy Apple’s iPad – Computerworld.

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