Continuing Coverage: Opinions

Last year, IT budgets declined by 10 per cent to 20 per cent, depending on who you believe. Jobs were lost. And the pool of vendors is constantly shrinking, given the tsunami of bankruptcies and mergers over the past few years. (Adios, Nortel.)

Google has already achieved the enviable marketing distinction of turning its name into a verb. But its enormous popularity and global reach place an unintended burden on the search giant: When it goes down, the entire Web is shaken.

There are quite a few reasons for ICT providers to smile these days.According to recent Gartner figures for Q2, Australia’s server sales significantly improved over the previous dire quarter, and were well above the Asia-Pacific average.

Recognition of ICT as a business enabler is slowly but surely filtering its way into the corporate psyche. But many in our industry feel the wider public, and our politicians, are still missing the opportunity to position ICT as core to the well-being of the global economy.

At just about every meeting, client catch up or industry event I attend these days, people ask me the same basic questions: “How’s business, what’s going to happen next and when/where is it all going to end?”

In some respects, the Internet has a lot to answer for. On the positive side it’s arguably the most important technological invention in history, one that has changed so many aspects of our daily lives for the better; but from a commercial perspective it has heightened the sense that ‘price is king’ to a point where nothing else matters for many of the goods we buy.

With the economy continuing to slow, many businesses are now experiencing tough times. Some managers are beginning to ask the question, ‘what can I do to make sure my business survives?’.

OK, it's not perfect. But Windows Vista on a new PC is perfectly serviceable for many users. In some ways, in fact, Vista is a better operating system than Windows XP. Unfortunately, XP's heir apparent is also the most derided and discounted Microsoft operating system since Windows Me.

I have no excuses - I should have known better than to let my gadget envy get the better of me. But, with all the new way cool features added to the iPhone 3G and the fact that my existing AT&T plan allowed me to upgrade at US$199, I decided to join the other crazies in line last Saturday afternoon and spend 2 hours to get my hands on a new iPhone 3G. I've spent more than 20 hours since then trying to get it to do what I needed it to do (i.e., synchronize with Outlook, stay charged up for more than a day, not die when I touch a button, etc.) and then I spent another 3 hours yesterday trying to return it. For more about why I now feel like a moron, read on...

All evidence points to the fact that smartphone viruses will be a threat to your network even though they aren't at this moment. After all, the latest mobile devices are packed with more and more applications and corporate data, are enabled for real Web browsing and online collaboration, and can access corporate servers. What's more, they live outside your firewall and often make use of three wireless networks (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular).

The end of financial year crystal ball is proving a murky one, according to many industry representatives.

One of my initial thoughts after hearing about the iPhone 3G was, "Hmmm, I wonder how the enterprise is going to keep this device out of the office." Last year, the checklist of reasons why IT shouldn't support it was pretty long, but Apple appears to have seen the lists and solved lots of these items.

On the keynote stage at Apple's 2008 Worldwide Developer Conference, Steve Jobs looked like a man who could use a Gatesian escape from the glass house to a quieter life spent in pursuit of passions that a CEO hasn't time to explore. The difference between Steve and Bill is that Steve's passion is already in his grasp. iPhone can be seen as a culmination point for much of what Steve has set his mind, hand, and brain trust to in the past decade.

Apple's second generation iPhone -- officially unveiled this week by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and dubbed the iPhone 3G -- is slated to hit the shelves of Apple and AT&T stores across the US (and in 21 other nations) on July 11. The iPhone 3G will sport both cosmetic and serious under-the-hood upgrades from the current model and will feature a new, lower purchase price. It will also ship with the iPhone 2.0 firmware, offering access to a host of new operating system features, most notably the ability to install third-party applications using the App Store.

Microsoft's desperate struggle to acquire all or part of Yahoo! has gotten hung up not on disagreement over a fair price for the latter's online advertising operations, sources say, but rather the value of Yahoo!'s iconic exclamation point.

Local IT industry rags and tabloid media have been abuzz this past week with 'news' that Apple will launch the iPhone in Australia in June.

Now that Microsoft has dropped its bid to take over Yahoo, industry analysts assessed what happened and what to expect from the two companies.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released in a staggered fashion to a variety of channels, and Windows XP Service Pack 3 is right around the corner. So why should you care if you're also considering adopting Windows Server 2008? How do the respective service packs fit into the overall design?

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced its intentions to acquire Yahoo. Although Yahoo has since announced it plans to fight Microsoft's takeover and court other suitors, most notably Google, there is an element of shared search technology that neither Microsoft nor Yahoo can easily dismiss because of Microsoft's earlier 2008 announcement to acquire FAST Search and Transfer.

The final version of Vista SP1 focuses on under-the-hood improvements to reliability, security and performance, with very few changes made to the interface or Vista's features. Think of it as a giant, glorified set of patches and fixes rather than a clear and visible change to the operating system.