WASHINGTON: Mobile privacy safeguards should also extend to third party application developers, two lawmakers said after reviewing the practices of four major US wireless carriers.
Representatives Edward Markey and Joe Barton, co-chairs of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, released letters they received from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile in response to their inquiries last month about the collection, use and storage of location data.
"After thoroughly reviewing the responses from the wireless carriers, I am left with a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty," Barton said in a statement.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, while AT&T has bid $39 billion to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG.
While receiving customer consent before accessing location data was common practice among the wireless carriers, Barton said there was a disconnect for third-party applications.
"Third-party developers can access the location of customers any time they want," Barton said. "They shouldn't have free reign over your location data and personally identifiable information."
Markey echoed this sentiment, saying consumer privacy protections must apply "across the entire wireless ecosystem - from wireless carriers, to mobile handset makers, to application developers."
Markey and Barton grew concerned about location tracking after media reports found that Deutsche Telekom tracked the exact coordinates of a German politician using its service over a six-month period.
The letters revealed varying use across the wireless carriers of encryption and other security technologies to protect customers' personal data. The data was also stored for varying periods of time by the companies.
To curb security breaches that can lead to identity theft, Markey said sensitive data on mobile phones should only be readable by those with a legitimate need to access it, and the data should be stored for the shortest periods necessary.
The issue took the spotlight recently after reports suggested Apple Inc's iPhone was monitoring the whereabouts of its users.
Apple has denied tracking its customers, but said it would release a software update to cut the size of the wireless hotspot location database stored on its iPhones, and stop backing up that information.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller will hold a hearing in May on consumer protection and privacy in the mobile marketplace. Senator Al Franken said that both Google and Apple would attend his May 10 hearing, the first by the new Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Sunday 1 May 2011
iPad sales hurt Microsoft, profit falls below Apple
SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp's Windows sales slumped last quarter as the iPad crimped demand for consumer laptops, marking the first time in 20 years that the software maker reported a smaller quarterly profit than Apple Inc.
Revenue in Microsoft's Windows division fell 4.4 percent to $4.45 billion, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement. That missed the $4.6 billion average prediction of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income was $5.23 billion, eclipsed by the $5.99 billion reported by Apple last quarter.
Consumer PC shipments dropped 8 percent in the quarter, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said. Netbooks -- the cheap laptops that became popular during the recession -- plunged 40 percent, partially because of defections to tablet computers, he said. The decline overshadowed a better-than- anticipated performance from Microsoft's Office unit and increased PC demand from corporations.
"You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook," said Pat Becker Jr., principal of Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc., which holds Microsoft shares as part of its $2.5 billion in assets. "It's a problem on the consumer side, and that's a market where Microsoft continues to give up territory to Apple."
Less than Apple
Net income rose to 61 cents a share, from $4.01 billion, or 45 cents, Microsoft said. Excluding a 5-cent per-share tax benefit, earnings matched the 56-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The results underscore the ascendance of Apple, which surpassed Microsoft as the world's most valuable technology company last May. The last time Apple's profit was bigger than Microsoft's was 1991.
While PC shipments to corporate customers rose 9 percent, tablet competition accounted for some of the sluggishness in consumer sales, Klein said in an interview.
"It's fair to say tablet is some of that," he said.
Total PC sales declined 2 percent last quarter, Microsoft said. That the Windows business performed even worse adds to the concern over Microsoft's performance, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland.
"That's suggesting some market share loss, some real deterioration," said Barnicle, who rates Microsoft's stock "sector perform."
Office sales
Microsoft's overall sales rose to $16.4 billion, compared with the $16.2 billion average projection. That reflected demand for such products as Office business-productivity software and programs for servers -- the computers that run networks.
"We are seeing businesses invest in technology," Klein said. "They are buying hardware and they are buying Microsoft software." Microsoft expects corporate PC shipments to outpace consumer sales for the rest of the year.
Sales in the business division, which sells Office software and is the company's biggest unit, rose 21 percent to $5.25 billion, compared with the $4.9 billion average estimate of analysts. Revenue at the Server and Tools unit was $4.1 billion, compared with the $4 billion analysts projected.
"There is a tale of two cities going on here," said Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG in San Francisco, who recommends buying Microsoft shares. "You have consumers who say an iPad is good enough for consuming data, but for the enterprise side, those enterprises are continuing with Microsoft. The thing that has hurt Microsoft is that tablets are no question the must-have item for consumers."
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Revenue in Microsoft's Windows division fell 4.4 percent to $4.45 billion, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement. That missed the $4.6 billion average prediction of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income was $5.23 billion, eclipsed by the $5.99 billion reported by Apple last quarter.
Consumer PC shipments dropped 8 percent in the quarter, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said. Netbooks -- the cheap laptops that became popular during the recession -- plunged 40 percent, partially because of defections to tablet computers, he said. The decline overshadowed a better-than- anticipated performance from Microsoft's Office unit and increased PC demand from corporations.
"You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook," said Pat Becker Jr., principal of Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc., which holds Microsoft shares as part of its $2.5 billion in assets. "It's a problem on the consumer side, and that's a market where Microsoft continues to give up territory to Apple."
Less than Apple
Net income rose to 61 cents a share, from $4.01 billion, or 45 cents, Microsoft said. Excluding a 5-cent per-share tax benefit, earnings matched the 56-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The results underscore the ascendance of Apple, which surpassed Microsoft as the world's most valuable technology company last May. The last time Apple's profit was bigger than Microsoft's was 1991.
While PC shipments to corporate customers rose 9 percent, tablet competition accounted for some of the sluggishness in consumer sales, Klein said in an interview.
"It's fair to say tablet is some of that," he said.
Total PC sales declined 2 percent last quarter, Microsoft said. That the Windows business performed even worse adds to the concern over Microsoft's performance, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland.
"That's suggesting some market share loss, some real deterioration," said Barnicle, who rates Microsoft's stock "sector perform."
Office sales
Microsoft's overall sales rose to $16.4 billion, compared with the $16.2 billion average projection. That reflected demand for such products as Office business-productivity software and programs for servers -- the computers that run networks.
"We are seeing businesses invest in technology," Klein said. "They are buying hardware and they are buying Microsoft software." Microsoft expects corporate PC shipments to outpace consumer sales for the rest of the year.
Sales in the business division, which sells Office software and is the company's biggest unit, rose 21 percent to $5.25 billion, compared with the $4.9 billion average estimate of analysts. Revenue at the Server and Tools unit was $4.1 billion, compared with the $4 billion analysts projected.
"There is a tale of two cities going on here," said Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG in San Francisco, who recommends buying Microsoft shares. "You have consumers who say an iPad is good enough for consuming data, but for the enterprise side, those enterprises are continuing with Microsoft. The thing that has hurt Microsoft is that tablets are no question the must-have item for consumers."
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Facebook's growth exceeds expectations
Philadelphia: Facebook Inc's business is growing faster than forecast several months ago and the firm is on track to top $2 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation in 2011, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook's growth is above the growth expectations that circulated when Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies invested in the closely held Internet company, the newspaper said in its online edition.
The newspaper did not say by how much Facebook may exceed expectations.
Goldman's and Digital Sky Technologies' investment was at a share price that implied a $50 billion valuation for Facebook.
The Wall Street Journal said Facebook's profits were now growing at a fast-enough rate to justify a valuation of $100 billion or more when it goes public.
Facebook is expected to go public early next year.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
Source: ibnlive.in.com
Facebook's growth is above the growth expectations that circulated when Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies invested in the closely held Internet company, the newspaper said in its online edition.
The newspaper did not say by how much Facebook may exceed expectations.
Goldman's and Digital Sky Technologies' investment was at a share price that implied a $50 billion valuation for Facebook.
The Wall Street Journal said Facebook's profits were now growing at a fast-enough rate to justify a valuation of $100 billion or more when it goes public.
Facebook is expected to go public early next year.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
Source: ibnlive.in.com
Microsoft profit expected to rise
SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp is expected to report an 18 per cent jump in quarterly profit, as its reliable Windows and Office franchises keep growing.
But that may not be enough to rouse its shares from a decade-long slumber or ease fears that its dominance of personal computing is waning.
The world's largest software company has sold a record-breaking 350 million licenses for its Windows 7 operating system since launching it 18 months ago, and its latest Office suite of applications is a hit with businesses.
But even if Microsoft follows most other tech companies and beats Wall Street's expectations -- as it has done for the last six quarters -- there is no evidence that it will turbocharge the stock, which trades around the same level it did 10 years ago.
Investors fear that new gadgets, led by Apple Inc's iPad, are the thin end of the wedge that will one day separate Microsoft from its core customers.
The new tablets "are making a sea of Microsoft customers comfortable using an operating system different than Microsoft's," Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of fund manager YCMNET Advisors, said earlier this week.
"You're going to see a migration away from the monopolistic dominance that Microsoft had, and that's worrisome for them."
Apple's iPad, along with a handful of tablets running Google Inc's Android system, are starting to eat at the edges of Microsoft's domination of personal computers.
PC sales -- the most reliable indicator of Microsoft's financial success -- fell 1 percent in the first three months of the year, according to one research firm.
VALUATION SAGS Long term, some see the new devices as unleashing a genie that Microsoft may never be able to put back in the bottle.
That fear has chilled Microsoft's stock, pushing it down 15 per cent in the last year, compared with a 16 percent gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Despite quarter after quarter of strong results for Microsoft -- the company racked up record sales and profit in the last three months of last year -- investors are unwilling to grant it the valuation they used to.
The stock is now trading at 9.6 times expected earnings for the next 12 months. That is half the stock's 10-year average and below the 13 times average for major tech companies.
Even Microsoft's 2.5 per cent dividend yield, which lags only Intel Corp's among big tech, is not enough to persuade investors to change their outlook.
Although some options traders are betting on an upward swing in Microsoft's shares after the results, past experience has shown that even blowout results tend to be priced in before earnings.
This quarter, Microsoft is expected to post sales growth of 12 per cent to $16.2 billion in its fiscal third quarter, and earnings of 56 cents per share, up smartly from 45 cents a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
That is a respectable gain in a slow-moving economy, but it may not be enough to keep its grip on the technology crown.
Apple, which overtook Microsoft in terms of market value and quarterly sales last year, posted a 95 percent jump in second-quarter net profit to $5.99 billion last week.
Microsoft is expected to report an 18 per cent increase to only $4.7 billion.
Two years ago, Microsoft's quarterly profit was almost double Apple's. The last time Apple produced more profit in a year than Microsoft was 1990.
To add insult to injury, Microsoft's languishing stock means it may be overtaken in market value soon by IBM, the lumbering old foe that Microsoft vanquished in the 1990s.
At the close of business on Wednesday, Apple led the pack with a market value of $324 billion. Microsoft was a distant second at $220 billion, with IBM close behind at $204 billion.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
But that may not be enough to rouse its shares from a decade-long slumber or ease fears that its dominance of personal computing is waning.
The world's largest software company has sold a record-breaking 350 million licenses for its Windows 7 operating system since launching it 18 months ago, and its latest Office suite of applications is a hit with businesses.
But even if Microsoft follows most other tech companies and beats Wall Street's expectations -- as it has done for the last six quarters -- there is no evidence that it will turbocharge the stock, which trades around the same level it did 10 years ago.
Investors fear that new gadgets, led by Apple Inc's iPad, are the thin end of the wedge that will one day separate Microsoft from its core customers.
The new tablets "are making a sea of Microsoft customers comfortable using an operating system different than Microsoft's," Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of fund manager YCMNET Advisors, said earlier this week.
"You're going to see a migration away from the monopolistic dominance that Microsoft had, and that's worrisome for them."
Apple's iPad, along with a handful of tablets running Google Inc's Android system, are starting to eat at the edges of Microsoft's domination of personal computers.
PC sales -- the most reliable indicator of Microsoft's financial success -- fell 1 percent in the first three months of the year, according to one research firm.
VALUATION SAGS Long term, some see the new devices as unleashing a genie that Microsoft may never be able to put back in the bottle.
That fear has chilled Microsoft's stock, pushing it down 15 per cent in the last year, compared with a 16 percent gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Despite quarter after quarter of strong results for Microsoft -- the company racked up record sales and profit in the last three months of last year -- investors are unwilling to grant it the valuation they used to.
The stock is now trading at 9.6 times expected earnings for the next 12 months. That is half the stock's 10-year average and below the 13 times average for major tech companies.
Even Microsoft's 2.5 per cent dividend yield, which lags only Intel Corp's among big tech, is not enough to persuade investors to change their outlook.
Although some options traders are betting on an upward swing in Microsoft's shares after the results, past experience has shown that even blowout results tend to be priced in before earnings.
This quarter, Microsoft is expected to post sales growth of 12 per cent to $16.2 billion in its fiscal third quarter, and earnings of 56 cents per share, up smartly from 45 cents a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
That is a respectable gain in a slow-moving economy, but it may not be enough to keep its grip on the technology crown.
Apple, which overtook Microsoft in terms of market value and quarterly sales last year, posted a 95 percent jump in second-quarter net profit to $5.99 billion last week.
Microsoft is expected to report an 18 per cent increase to only $4.7 billion.
Two years ago, Microsoft's quarterly profit was almost double Apple's. The last time Apple produced more profit in a year than Microsoft was 1990.
To add insult to injury, Microsoft's languishing stock means it may be overtaken in market value soon by IBM, the lumbering old foe that Microsoft vanquished in the 1990s.
At the close of business on Wednesday, Apple led the pack with a market value of $324 billion. Microsoft was a distant second at $220 billion, with IBM close behind at $204 billion.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
HP bags $2.5 Billion NASA contract
PALO ALTO: Technology company Hewlett-Packard says it has been awarded a multi-year contract worth up to $2.5 billion to provide technology services to NASA.
Hewlett-Packard Co said the contract has a four-year base period with two additional three-year option periods.
The deal is the latest sign of an economic recovery and a pickup in government spending.
HP says it will provide personal computing services so that NASA employees can collaborate more easily in a secure computing environment.
The company says it will provide computing services and devices to more than 60,000 users as part of the deal. It will modernize the space agency's computer systems used by employees.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Hewlett-Packard Co said the contract has a four-year base period with two additional three-year option periods.
The deal is the latest sign of an economic recovery and a pickup in government spending.
HP says it will provide personal computing services so that NASA employees can collaborate more easily in a secure computing environment.
The company says it will provide computing services and devices to more than 60,000 users as part of the deal. It will modernize the space agency's computer systems used by employees.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
H-1B visa abuse exist: US official
WASHINGTON: Noting that Indians have been benefited most from the H-1B and L1 work visas, a senior US official has said there have been some cases of abuse of these visa categories in India.
"Our consulates or the embassy in India had become aware of certain abuses of those categories of visas, and they are taking measures to make sure that those abuses do not continue," Janice Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs said.
"There's an awful lot of outreach with the business community in India. We have a very good relationship with Nasscom and other business groups there. I even spoke to them when -- during a recent visit to Delhi," Jacobs said.
"Over 50 per cent of the H1-B and L visas that we issue worldwide are issued in India. So those 2 programs, I think, have really benefited Indian nationals over the years," he said in response to a question.
Jacobs said the US was very interested in strengthening the economic partnership that it has with India.
"I think these visas are part of that. So we don't want people who might try to abuse the system to spoil it for everyone else," he said.
"So we do a lot of presentations and outreach on trying to explain what the procedures are, what the requirements are, just to make sure that everyone is sort of playing by the book, so that we're able to issue visas to qualified applicants," Jacobs said.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
"Our consulates or the embassy in India had become aware of certain abuses of those categories of visas, and they are taking measures to make sure that those abuses do not continue," Janice Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs said.
"There's an awful lot of outreach with the business community in India. We have a very good relationship with Nasscom and other business groups there. I even spoke to them when -- during a recent visit to Delhi," Jacobs said.
"Over 50 per cent of the H1-B and L visas that we issue worldwide are issued in India. So those 2 programs, I think, have really benefited Indian nationals over the years," he said in response to a question.
Jacobs said the US was very interested in strengthening the economic partnership that it has with India.
"I think these visas are part of that. So we don't want people who might try to abuse the system to spoil it for everyone else," he said.
"So we do a lot of presentations and outreach on trying to explain what the procedures are, what the requirements are, just to make sure that everyone is sort of playing by the book, so that we're able to issue visas to qualified applicants," Jacobs said.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
SAP posts disappointing Q1 profit
FRANKFURT: German software giant SAP said Thursday that it made a net profit of 403 million euros ($600 million) in the first quarter of 2011, a gain of four percent that nonetheless missed expectations.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a net profit of 515 million euros.
The group confirmed its full-year sales forecast as revenue from software and related services climbed by 20 percent to 2.33 billion euros, in part owing to the consolidation of the US firm Sybase that SAP bought last year.
SAP, which makes professional software, has rebounded from a slump seen during the global economic downturn, and co-chief executive Bill McDermott was quoted in a statement as saying: "Our strong momentum continued in the first quarter."
The group expects sales of software and related services to gain 10-14 percent this year from the 2010 figure of 9.87 billion euros.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a net profit of 515 million euros.
The group confirmed its full-year sales forecast as revenue from software and related services climbed by 20 percent to 2.33 billion euros, in part owing to the consolidation of the US firm Sybase that SAP bought last year.
SAP, which makes professional software, has rebounded from a slump seen during the global economic downturn, and co-chief executive Bill McDermott was quoted in a statement as saying: "Our strong momentum continued in the first quarter."
The group expects sales of software and related services to gain 10-14 percent this year from the 2010 figure of 9.87 billion euros.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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