Category Archives: Business

Is Qualcomm the New AMD? Or the Next Intel?

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With the news that Qualcomm will take over the CES keynote spot previously held by Microsoft, it really became clear what a dominant player the company has become. Quietly, while no one was paying attention, it’s become the second-most important semiconductor maker in the U.S.

via Is Qualcomm the New AMD? Or the Next Intel?.

Qualcomm started life in 1985 as a maker of cellular communications semiconductors, and it hasn’t strayed far from that formula. It’s pretty much the go-to company for CDMA chips and is now taking a lead in 4G LTE as well. So why would a company that’s so vertical become Intel’s biggest competitor? Because of where the two are headed.

Apple loses UK tablet design appeal versus Samsung

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Apple still needs to run ads saying Samsung had not infringed its rights.

The US firm had previously been ordered to place a notice to that effect – with a link to the original judgement – on its website and place other adverts in the Daily Mail, Financial Times, T3 Magazine and other publications to “correct the damaging impression” that Samsung was a copycat.

via BBC News – Apple loses UK tablet design appeal versus Samsung.

Apple declined to comment. It can still appeal to the UK Supreme Court, otherwise the ruling applies across the European Union.

The New Microsoft Walled Garden

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For the first time in the history of the PC, Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows ecosystem for which they will be the sole software distributor. If you buy Windows 8, the only place you will be able to download software that integrates with its new user interface will be the official Windows Store. Microsoft will have complete control over what software will be allowed there.

via Critical Detail.

This article has a very lengthy description of Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS describing  past evolution of the PC to where it is now going.  In essence, Microsoft want to be like Apple.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next year.  Here’s another blurb:

Now, this is apparently a point of some contention. Perhaps because Microsoft has not made a bigger deal about it in their press releases, not everyone believes that distributing software for the modern UI will require developers to get Microsoft’s permission. But they are wrong. In order to set the record straight once and for all, a complete, thoroughly researched analysis of Microsoft’s official publications on the subject is included as Appendix B to this article. It demonstrates that there is no method for developers to distribute modern UI applications to the internet at large without receiving explicit approval from Microsoft.

Huawei and Cisco’s Source Code: Correcting the Record

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Unlike the smartphone patent battles, where parties try to protect and grow their market share by suing each other over broad patents where no direct copying is required, let alone even knowledge that a patent exists, this litigation involved allegations by Cisco of direct, verbatim copying of our source code, to say nothing of our command line interface, our help screens, our copyrighted manuals and other elements of our products.

via Cisco Blog » Blog Archive » Huawei and Cisco’s Source Code: Correcting the Record.

TSMC Seen to be Sole 20nm Process Supplier

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Taipei, Oct. 12, 2012 (CENS)–Citigroup Global Markets Inc. estimated Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to be the only supplier of 20nm process to Apple quad-core processors over the next one to two years, citing the company’s unmatched technological advance on 20nm process and Apple’s decision to adopt 20nm quad-core processors in its new products.

via TSMC Seen to be Sole 20nm Process Supplier to Apple Quad Processors | CENS.com – The Taiwan Economic News | Daily Prime News | HTML |Ta1-CaE-Dy2012/10/12-Id41728.

Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week

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The program placed orders in 25-millisecond bursts involving about 500 stocks, according to Nanex, a market data firm. The algorithm never executed a single trade, and it abruptly ended at about 10:30 a.m. ET Friday.

via Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week – CNBC.com – US Business News – CNBC.

Translation: The ultimate goal of many of these programs is to gum up the system so it slows down the quote feed to others and allows the computer traders (with their co-located servers at the exchanges) to gain a money-making arbitrage opportunity.

HTC suffers 79% crash in quarterly profits

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HTC’s share of the global smartphone market by shipments fell to 5.8% in the second quarter from 10.7% a year earlier, according to Bloomberg.

via HTC suffers 79% crash in quarterly profits | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

HTC has seen falling average selling prices for its phones as it has tried to break into the fast-growing Chinese market. Approximately 30% of shipments go to China but price pressures mean they account for only 20% of revenues.

Facing Espionage, US Rejects Changes to Global Telecom

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Countries would also be able to charge fees for international Internet traffic and establish new engineering and technical guidelines that would affect how the Internet works.

via Facing Espionage, US Rejects Changes to Global Telecom | International | World | Epoch Times.

He also said the ITU’s regulations are “not an appropriate or useful venue to address cybersecurity,” and added, “We are very sensitive about any one organization taking on the sole role of solving cyberthreats.”

US congress rules Huawei a ‘security threat’

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The US congressional panel launched its investigation over concerns that Beijing could use the fast-growing firms for economic or military espionage, or cyber attacks.

via US congress rules Huawei a ‘security threat’.

From the Chicago Tribune via Reuters:

Employee-owned and unlisted Huawei is the world’s second-biggest maker of routers, switches and telecoms equipment by revenue after Sweden’s Ericsson. ZTE ranks fifth. In the global mobile phone sector, ZTE is fourth and Huawei sixth.

A blast from the past (1999):

Giant US software manufacturer Lotus has been lowering the profile of information about how they have installed an NSA-only trapdoor into e-mail and conference systems used by many European governments, including the German Ministry of Defence, the French Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Education in Latvia.

Ruckus Wireless Goes for an IPO

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Ruckus sells its Wi-Fi access points, controllers and gateways to service providers as well as enterprise customers. The company says it has 45 carrier customers, among which are Bright House Networks , The Cloud , KDDI Corp. , Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and Towerstream Corp. (Nasdaq: TWER). (See Ruckus Makes Over KDDI With Wi-Fi Offload.)

via Light Reading Mobile – Broadband – Ruckus Wireless Goes for an IPO – Telecom News Analysis.

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Ruckus had 559 employees at the end of June 2012 and offices in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and the U.K.