Showing 21 - 29 of 29
Microsoft and devices? Time to call it quits?
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/08/2013
» Things are starting to slow down in the IT marketplace generally, but specifically with tablets. We'll start off with Microsoft, whose Surface RT devices are just not selling. Total revenue to date is US$853 million (26.5 billion baht); that might sound like a lot, but it's at least a billion dollars less than expected. When you factor in the estimated $900 million in advertising costs, you can see what the problems are. So far the proceeds from sales haven't even covered the launch costs. During the same period, Apple sold 57 million iPads. Taking a retrospective view, Microsoft has never done that well in selling devices, whether they be phones, music players or tablets; so perhaps in future the firm should just stick to software.
Microsoft's masterful marketing
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/07/2013
» When it comes to marketing, companies like Microsoft are masters. They recently announced that the Windows 8 store now has over 100,000 apps and that the installed base of Win 8 has now passed Vista. They also claim that the eight months it took for the 100K apps is faster than for Apple's iPad and Google Play at 18 and 24 months respectively. More interesting figures to me is that Windows 7 still has over 44% of the market and XP is still a bit over 37% with Windows 8 at a tiny 5.1% and Vista on 4.6%. Mac OSX, if you add up versions 10.6-10.8, comes to about 6.6%. So after all the hype and a year on, Win 8 is sitting just under Mac OSX and a very long way behind both Win 7 and Win XP, the latter still being a favourite of systems administrators everywhere.
There's one born every minute
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/06/2013
» One of the latest acronyms in the IT world is BYOD, or bring your own device. In the US apparently nearly two-thirds of mobile workers pay for their own devices and of those a third says it affects their choice of employer. These figures come from global connectivity provider iPass. If these figures are accurate then the BYOD is a growing trend. More than 80% of those polled claim they are more productive at home. I'm not so sure about this figure, but the office did at least poll ahead of coffee shops and public transport.
Samsung bites into big Apple
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/06/2013
» No prizes for guessing the fastest selling smartphone in South Korea. The Samsung Galaxy S4, of course _ it has sold 10 million units since the April launch. You will remember that the iPhone 5 sold five million units in its opening weekend but the S4 will be seriously attacking Apple's market share over the next month or so.
There's no time for a chill pill
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/04/2013
» The primary goal of any IT department is to make stuff available to its users and provide access to company data. This is usually achieved by providing standard desktop configurations tested against known technologies. Adding additional availability to an existing solution is risky and can be costly. Also, in the past, consumer-based IT had little relation to business-based IT, but in the modern world user demands on the IT solution staff is increasing.
Stupid is as stupid does
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/02/2013
» Microsoft, or at least someone there, is stupid. Let me explain why I think so. Windows 8 is their latest and greatest operating system. It is provided on just about every new PC sold, including on the ultrabook my parents recently purchased. They were going away on an archaeological training dig in Cambodia and about an hour before they left tried out a new 2TB Western Digital Passport external drive to be used as one of two for backing up data they were going to collect.
Children at risk of exposure to internet's dark side
Life, James Hein, Published on 13/02/2013
» It wasn't that long ago that you would ask a young teenager about computer stuff, but these days it's even younger. According to NSPCC, a charity organisation in the UK, children as young as five should be taught about safety online.
Household names that just can't keep a secret
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/02/2013
» So which companies do you trust? Every year for the past seven, independent research group the Ponemon Institute has published a report on the Most Trusted Companies for Privacy. This US-based survey asks 100,000 adults to rate the larger organisations out there. This year, AmEx, HP, Amazon and IBM made the top four. Microsoft and eBay also got into the top 20, but Apple and Google didn't _ for the first time in several years. The problem is that people these days no longer trust IT organisations, believing that they have precious little regard for users' privacy. In fact, the prevailing opinion is that these firms collect users' personal info and profit from it, either by using it themselves or by selling the data to others.
A return to form
Life, James Hein, Published on 31/07/2012
» It is good to be back on the pages of the Bangkok Post. For those diehards who kept reading my Currents blog during the interim, you can now relax with the expanded Life section and catch up here. The new Currents will be the same as the old Currents but with less technical and programming bits in the shorter format.