Retail giant Tesco looks set to strengthen its hi-tech footprint by selling Apple iPhones. Tesco-Mobile, a joint venture with UK operator O2, hopes to start selling the must have wireless fashion accessory by Christmas. Given the amount of money I get charged by O2 every time I go abroad, I suspect that this will be a lucrative channel for Tesco. It will be interesting to see how this shapes the iPhone’s future. From a cachet perspective, this is a retrograde step. But a major result from a product proliferation perspective. So is Apple abandoning its loyal aesthete following? Or can we expect a new range of exclusive beautiful overpriced gadgets to keep the tribe happy?
We should have a clearer view of the likelihood of Oracle acquiring Sun when the former meets the European Competition Commission in December. There’s quite a bit at stake. The ECC needs to let outsiders know that it is really quite powerful. Telling Oracle that it has a "profound misunderstanding of the database market” sounds more like the pre-fight interview in a mixed martial arts competition. This looks like macho posturing and will certainly make the EU look foolish on the world stage. Oracle on the other hand wants to be IBM and that requires having ‘tin’ in the portfolio. Given the motivations, positioning and credibility of the ‘contenders, I think Oracle will prevail with what might be called a ‘technical’ knock out.
A recent survey of the most powerful computers in the world reveals that the US based Jaguar takes the top slot with a speed of 1.8 petaflops (a lot). It is based in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and is not used for distilling Jack Daniels. The US has 277 of the top 500. Europe has 153 and the UK has 44 of them. China had a fifth placed ranking with the Tianhe-1 at about 0.6 petaflops (still quite a lot). Who said the mainframe was dead?
Hyderabad based IT services firm Satyam, famous for its $1bn accounting fraud, is back in the news again. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has recently discovered that the fraud is much deeper ($2.6bn). This caused an 11% share price fall. The company’s former chairman and nine others have had charges filed against them. Apparently over one thousand properties had been illegally purchased by the company. That’s a fair few holiday homes.
Sounds like a Star Wars character. But the acquisition ($2.7bn) of network component player 3Com by IT giant HP will have an impact on the rapidly consolidating data centre market. Possibly this is a response to Cisco’s tie up with EMC, which some say could well be a first step towards full blown marriage? Possibly this is a response to Cisco snubbing its channel partner by entering the server market? So despite industry initiatives to be greener, it would appear that things are ‘hotting up’ in the data centre.