Apple Doesn’t Need Steve Jobs; Tech Industry Does

On Monday, 55-year-old Steve Jobs, the legendary CEO of Apple, disclosed that he will be going on medical leave. He was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, and he had a liver transplant in 2008. He said he will continue as the company’s CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions, but COO Tim Cook will be handling the day-to-day operations. Jobs has taken Apple to the peak of high-end technological innovation and fashionable design and in the process made it the world’s most valuable technology company, surpassing Microsoft. On Tuesday, Apple reported yet another stellar quarter that was beyond all expectations. The near-term future also looks bright, with the iPhone soon coming to Verizon, which has a subscriber base of 93 million. It looks as though Apple does not need Steve Jobs to sustain its momentum, at least not for the moment. >>>

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TCS And Infosys Expanding In China

A recent Gartner study claims that the global spending on technology will increase 5% in 2011 to $3.6 trillion. IT outsourcers are pleased by the report. However, in India, currency volatility continues to pose a threat. During the previous quarter, the U.S. dollar fell more than 5% against the euro and around 2% against the pound, but the rupee rose an average 3.5% against the dollar. The U.S. market claims nearly 80% of the Indian outsourcers’ revenues. As the rupee continues to strengthen, the cost advantage for the region is wearing off faster than expected. But even amid such concerns, India’s largest IT outsourcer, TCS, posted better-than-expected results.

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Popularity Of Mobile Devices Challenge For Intel

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), which has an 80% share in PC chips and a 90% share in the server market, reported strong results last week that beat estimates and provided a strong outlook for 2011 driven by the growth in servers. The growing number of connected devices like smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and embedded devices is leading to a surge in Internet traffic and data usage. This dynamic in turn leads to a demand for high-performing servers and networking infrastructure. Intel says it is well positioned to benefit from the growth of its Data Center division and the build out of cloud computing. But it needs to look out for challenges from ARM, not just in smartphones and tablets but in servers as well. >>>

For-Profit Education Sector Reporting Massive Enrollment Drop

The for-profit educational sector has had a tough year with the tightening of government scrutiny of loan default rates, media publicity highlighting poor education, and tighter controls being levied by the Department of Education for federal student aid. All of these measures have impacted student enrollments. Earlier last week, education institutes revealed their winter enrollment statistics, and the numbers were gloomy. Strayer Education reported a 20% drop in winter enrollment, DeVry a 5% drop, and Apollo a 3.8% drop in degreed enrollment. Even the S&P 1500 Education Services subindex fell significantly in the past year. After having touched a 52-week high of $139.10 in April of last year, the index dropped to $81.04.

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Facebook’s Strategy In Perspective

One of the big technological trends of the decade has been the rise of the social Web, and I do believe that it is a trend that will drive the evolution of the Internet in the coming years. Facebook itself has been one of the biggest trends in the category. The social networking site, started in 2004, calls itself a social utility that helps people to communicate and connect with the various social groups such as family, friends, colleagues, and others in their lives. In this post, we will review Facebook’s strategy – what it is and what it should be. >>>

Akamai’s Ups And Downs

Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) witnessed many ups and downs in 2010. Early in the year, the company landed a deal with Netflix as a primary content delivery network, taking away business from Level 3. However, at the end of the year, Netflix, which accounts for about 20% of primetime Internet traffic, went back to Level 3. In December, Akamai also lost a court ruling in its four-year patent battle with Limelight Networks. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Digital Keeper RealNetworks Betting On Unifi

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2010–2014 (Outlook), the U.S. market for digital media across all segments, including text, games, music, and video will reach $134 billion by 2014 and contribute 26% of the $517 billion media market. Compare this with 2009, when digital content contributed 19% or $81 billion of a $428 billion media market. With entertainment and media spending expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 3.8% in 2010–2014, digital media players can expect to have a good run in the coming years.

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Should Finisar Acquire Oclaro?

Finisar recently announced that it raised $117.9 million in net proceeds from its public offering of 4.14 million shares. In September of last year, Finisar acquired Broadway and it now appears to be preparing for a shopping spree in 2011. An analyst recently suggested Oclaro as a possible acquisition. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

52-Week Highs For Red Hat And NetApp

According to Gartner, open source solutions providers are expected to benefit from strong growth in the coming years. By 2015, open source software will be used to enable over 60% of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings. By 2016, open source software will be included in the mission-critical software portfolios of 99% of the Global 2000 enterprises, compared with 75% in 2010. Also by 2016, 50% of leading non-IT organizations will use open source as a business strategy to gain competitive advantage. Open source player Red Hat is already enjoying a good run.

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Weakness In PLD Market

Things were looking up for the programmable logic device (PLD) market, led by Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) with annual revenue of $1.83 billion in fiscal 2010 and followed by Altera (NASDAQ:ALTR) with annual revenue of $1.2 billion in 2009. However, Xilinx recently lowered its sales guidance. Altera, on the other hand, acquired optical network IP vendor Avalon Microelectronics. Let’s take a closer look. >>>