Apple: Siri Doesn’t Deliver

In a rare event, Apple’s recently announced quarterly results fell short of market expectations. After its meteoric rise, the stock also turned bearish. But given Apple’s strength, this should be just a minor bump in the road.

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Atlassian: A Cool Australian IPO-Ready Software Company

In the recent spurt of IPOs, where social media and consumer-focused Internet stocks have generally not fared very well, analysts believe that enterprise technology providers have a better chance, especially those operating in the SaaS model. Recently listed Proofpoint, Infoblox, and Splunk are cases in point. Another enterprise services provider, Atlassian, is expected to hit the IPO market soon.

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Microsoft Making Big Moves in Tablet, Social, Cloud

A Gartner report released earlier this month indicated that worldwide PC shipments fell 0.1% over the year to 87.5 million units in the second quarter of this year. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of flat to single-digit growth. Gartner believes that growing consumer interest in smartphones and media tablets is responsible for the declining PC sales.

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Although Euro Crisis Deals a Blow, IBM Moves Forward in Big Data

According to Gartner’s recent report, worldwide IT spending is projected to grow 3% over the year to $3.6 trillion this year. The estimates are higher than  expected growth rate of 2.5% over the year published earlier. By segment, computing hardware market is projected to grow 3.4% over the year to $420 billion. Enterprise software will see higher growth of 4.3% to $281 billion, and IT services are projected to grow 2.3% over the year to $864 billion. Analysts expects the most growth in telecom equipment spending, which is projected to rise 10.8% over the year to $377 billion, while the Telecom services segment will see the slowest growth at 1.4% to $1,686 billion. >>>

Google Stepping Up Video and Mobile

According to recently released report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC, online advertising spending grew 22% over the year to $30 billion in 2011. The last quarter of 2011 was the best ever quarter, with online advertising spending of $9 billion. For the first time last year, Internet advertising spending surpassed spending on cable television. Within online spending, mobile and video are gaining more ground. Mobile was the fastest growing segment and reported an increase of 149% last year to $1.6 billion. Digital video advertising grew 29% to $1.8 billion in 2011. Search remained the largest contributor for advertising dollars as it grew 27% to $14.8 billion. Search engine giant Google is benefiting from these trends.

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Yahoo Ready for the Olympics

Yahoo has of course been in the news lately because of its management changes. Last quarter, the company saw Scott Thompson leave the position due to misleading statements on his CV. His place was filled temporarily by Ross Levinsohn. Earlier this week, Marissa Mayer, former head of Google search, was hired as the company’s new CEO. After four failed CEOs, analysts believe that the young Mayer might just be the right person to help steer Yahoo out of its woes. Let’s take a look at what Mayer is dealing with.

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Twitter’s 2014 Forecasts Vary Widely

Where several online startups are rushing to go public, there are a few others that would much rather enjoy the freedom of remaining private. Social media giant Twitter is one company that seems to prefer the private route.

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Spotify Struggles with Business Despite Growing Revenues

There is a whole gamut of small companies with revenues in the range of $50 million-$150 million that are gearing up for an IPO in the next 18 months. However, it is reassuring to see that there are also a few others that have amassed a much higher revenue base and are still working hard to keep themselves private as they set up more robust business models.

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Marketo Grows Nicely, But Profitability in Question

According to Gartner, the CRM market worldwide last year grew 12.7% over the year to $11.9 billion. The researcher estimates that in 2011, the marketing automation software market was worth $2.8 billion. Online marketing services provider Marketo is growing fast in the segment as it prepares for an IPO.

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Evernote Eyes End 2013 IPO

Researcher Info-Tech believes that the growth of mobile devices is helping to advance the consumer technology market faster than the corporate technology market. Among one of the key markets experiencing strong growth is digital note-taking.

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