Financial Crisis hitting some techs

Ebay announced that it is cutting 10% of their workforce (1000 jobs) in an effort to stay ahead of this financial crisis that is affecting the world.  However the auction giant is planning for the future by spending $1.3 billion to buy Bill Me Later which is a PayPal rival and two Danish websites.  Ebay is vulnerable as consumers are buying less in a troubling economy therefore hurting revenue.  Times are tough but Ebay hopes that these purchases can help to them to come out of this troubling times stronger than ever.

Also, Google is facing some problems abroad as well since a large portion of revenue is done from the international markets.   Their internal revenue growth target is about 15% when Wall Street is expecting 20%.  It will be very difficult for Google to come out of this economic crisis without being affected.

Politics on the iPhone

The Obama campaign is tapping the iPhone for its 2008 Presidential campaign.  The iPhone app is full of information on the candidate stance on certain issues, news, position papers and videos.  The app also utilizes its GPS functionality to let the user know if there are any rallies in the area.  It also groups phone contacts into swing states so that the user can call friends in those states to let them know to vote for Obama.  The iPhone app is just another tool that the Obama campaign is using to promote its message.  They also use facebook and other “hip” tools to reach out to voters.

WiMax Mobile Broadband

Sprint announed the introduction of a service called WiMax which Sprint hopes that it will bring wireless broadband connectivity.  The service is catered to attract users of laptops who are on the go and need broadband connect speeds.  Prices are expected to be about $35 a month and will require the purchase of an aircard for about $45.  The service seems very inexpensive considering broadband connectivity offered by cable companies can be double that.  Speeds are expected to be 2 to 4 megabits per second which compares to about 1.4 megabits per second speed of AT&T 3G network.  The service is to be launed in a Baltimore as the test market and will bring WiMax to other metropolitan areas.  The expect by the end of 2009, they hope to have about 60-80 million consumers using WiMax.

Chrome Not Developing into a threat.

In the first 24 hours after the release of Chrome, Google’s new web browser, it hasn’t caught on as Google had hoped.  The first 24 hours saw a 1% market share for the new browser.  It hardly put a dent into Microsofts dominance at about 72% followed by Firefox at 19%  and then Apple’s Safari at about 7%.  As of last week however, the market share for Chrome has dropped off to about 0.7%.  User must be finding that Chrome does not provide the same amount of services as Explorer or Firefox because data is showing that users are coming back.  Safari is relatively unaffected since Chrome is not available on the Mac platform.

Google’s G1 Phone

After months of rumors and speculation, Google has finally released a phone based on their OS.  The phone is dubbed the G1 and runs on the T-Mobile platform.  The phone will run $179 with a two year contract, this is compared to the 8gb iPhone at $199 from Apple.  The data plans are cheaper in price than AT&T using the iPhone at $35 for unlimited web and messaging.   Analysts expect the phone to sell fewer than 500,000 units.

The functionality is roughly the same as the iPhone in that you can surf the internet, message, and watch youtube videos.  The WSJ’s Walt Mossberg is quoted as saying that the G1 is the first phone to challenge the iPhone in functionality.  Google has high hopes for this phone as it tries to tap the ever growing market for searches on smartphones.  It is no where near the revenue of computer based searches but it is rising.

Hewlett Packard to lay off 25,000 employees

Tech giant Hewlett Packard announced today that it is laying off 25,000 employees or 7.5 percent of its workforce.  The layoffs were necessary as a result of a merging the purchase of Electronic Data Systems which HP purchased for $13.9 billion in August.  The layoffs come at a bad time for the economy it is suffering from a deteriorating housing market, a 500 point collapse of the stock market and a financial market in turmoil.  This loss of jobs does not bode well for the economy already in crisis mode.   HP is not alone in its layoffs as Ebay may be in the works to layoff a significant amount of its employees as well.

The iTunes App Store good for business

After only 2 months or so since the iTunes app store has gone online, there are 3000 applicaitons available.  Most of these applications available on the app store are games.  However, the price point of most of the applications on the app store are $0.99.  Some applications are getting downloaded thousands of times and some of these app developers are now reaping in the profits.  These applications can be designed to appeal to many consumers for your business venture.

A Peek Into the Future

Do smart phones scare you?  Is it too much to think about just to make a call?  Would you just want a device to allow you access to only email?  Well the time has come.  A new gadget call Peek is about to go on sale at Target stores nationwide.  The $100 gadget only allows you to access email.  There are no buttons to access a phone, music, internet, etc…  The only thing it does is to access email.  The service will cost $20 a month however.

There are some drawbacks.  It is not very useful in the corporate arena or people who want to communicate faster.  The Peek only accesses mail about every 10 to 15 minutes.  You can’t click on any webpage links.  Emails with emoticons don’t show up correctly.  Other than that, some people might find this niche product useful.

Cell Phone Advertising

Will consumers embrace ads on their cell phone if it means that your monthly rates are reduced.  A recent poll showed that 9% of consumers find advertising on their phone acceptable however, some 31% of consumers would accept ads on their phone if it meant a few dollars in savings a month.  With the iPhone and its location based services, advertisers can uniquely target advertising to a persons location.  Advertising that is useful to the consumer may be more accepted.  In another study, 43% of respondents said that they would accept offers from vendors and retailers of their choice.

It remains to be seen if advertising on your phone will catch on.  The use of advertising on a cell phone is in its infancy right now.  Who knows what the future will hold for cell phone advertising.

Is Google’s Chrome the fastest browser?

People at Tech Crunch seem to think so.  Google’s newest venture into the web is their very own web browser.  Sure it may not be able to compete right away with Microsofts Internet Explorer but Google and Apple with Safari are chipping away at Microsofts dominance in the web browser market.  Annecdotal tests from individuals at Tech Crunch seem to think it is the fastest browser.  CNET also seems to agree with these findings but the tests seem to favor Google so these tests might be somewhat biased.  So now web designers have another browser to test their websites on so there are more headaches to come.