5 questions to ask before buying Microsoft licenses
Let's face it: Microsoft software licenses are expensive. And that's just the way the folks in Redmond want it. Otherwise, that $62 billion a year revenue stream might drop to a mere $52 billion.
But customers shouldn't cry for Microsoft. Instead, if they choose Microsoft products over cheaper open source alternatives, they should take a hard line in negotiations to get as much as they can for as little money as possible.
COST CONTROL: 5 tips for managing Microsoft licensing costs Read more...
Healthcare IT spending to hit $40B this year
Healthcare IT spending is expected to reach $40 billion by the end of this year, according to a study from market research firm RNCOS.
Much of that growth will come from spending on electronic health record (EHR) systems, mobile health applications and efforts to comply with new government standards.
Boosted by increased spending on healthcare software -- which is needed for the rollout of EHR systems -- the U.S. healthcare IT market is expected to grow at a rate of about 24 percent per year from 2012 to 2014, the study said. Spending on healthcare software rose 20.5 percent in the past year, from $6.8 billion in 2010 to a projected $8.2 billion this year, according to RNCOS. Read more...
Amazon says it’s ready for new Lady Gaga offer
Not disheartened, Amazon.com is giving its Lady Gaga discount another go today.
In an attempt to drum up interest in its new Cloud Drive digital music storage service, Amazon this past Monday offered Lady Gaga's new album, Born This Way, for 99 cents.
As an added bonus, anyone who bought the specially priced album was upgraded to 20GB of cloud storage, which is normally available for $20 a year or through the purchase of a full-price album. Read more...
Google knocks off Yahoo as U.S. display ad leader
Yahoo, the perennial leader in U.S. display advertising, has lost its number-one spot in that market segment to arch-rival Google, according to an IDC report released on Thursday.
In this year's first quarter, Google's share of the U.S. display ad market rose to 14.7 percent from 13.3 percent in 2010's fourth quarter, while Yahoo's share shrunk to 12.3 percent from 13.6 percent. Read more...
Volkswagen aims for ‘rolling computer’
The road Volkswagen wants to take in building cars is one that infuses them with intelligence, connectivity and new kinds of capabilities.
Warren Ritchie, CIO of Volkswagen Group of America, calls this vehicle an intelligent device that really is more or less "a rolling computer."
To help reach that goal, Ritchie is also building a different kind of IT organization that is more integrated with the business. And he is doing this at the same time that business units are declaring independence from IT by buying their own touch screens and cloud services.
The car of the future will be both a product and a service, hence the need for even more integration. Such a vehicle will have the ability to sense and diagnose a fault, recommend a fix, check on the availability of a part at a dealer or warehouse, and even offer scheduling options to the owner. Read more...
Lawmakers question AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile
AT&T's proposed acquisition of rival mobile carrier T-Mobile USA would give customers fewer choices and drive up prices, some U.S. lawmakers said Thursday.
Several members of the House Judiciary Committee's competition subcommittee questioned during a hearing whether the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should allow the $39 billion deal to happen.
"I see absolutely no redeeming reason for this merger to go through," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the senior member on the full committee. Read more...
Google Wallet may be missing key partners
While Google had some notable partners at the launch of its mobile payment platform, the companies that weren't there could end up determining the success of the project.
Google on Thursday announced a platform and a trial that will let people tap their NFC-capable phones against a reader in a retail store to pay for goods.
Sprint, Mastercard, Citi and First Data are supporting field trials in New York and San Francisco. More than 120,000 retail outlets including Macy's, Bloomingdales, Subway, Walgreens and others are involved. Read more...
Move Over, Apple: Amazon Launches Mac Download Store
Today, Amazon launched the Mac Download Store. This new venue offers hundreds of software and games for Macs, and this directly challenges Apple's own Mac store.
Amazon's offerings undercut Apple's products with lower prices. A search in the Apple website for Microsoft Office Home & Student 2011 Family Pack will yield a $149.99 price. The same program is being offered on the Amazon page for $115.00 for immediate download. Apple will ship the program to you. Read more...
Higher Prices for Phone 7 Apps Will Be Encouraged
Even with hundreds of new features built into an upcoming update of Windows Phone 7 and new device partners, Microsoft seems to understand that it's all about the apps. After the software giant showed off its Mango update this week, an executive said the company will encourage more developers to create applications for the Windows Phone Marketplace by allowing higher prices.
"I'd rather developers sell fewer than a million downloads and get to a million dollars," Brandon Watson, director of an apps developer program for Microsoft, told Bloomberg News during an interview in Helsinki. "If we can support a higher price point, that's good for developers." Read more...
New Mac Malware Variant Doesn’t Need an Admin’s OK
We'll give it to you straight. Santa Claus is a myth, the moon is green cheese-less, and Macs are vulnerable to malicious software. More evidence for the latter legend-buster is a new malware program that doesn't require a user to enter an administrative password to install it.
For years, Macs have enjoyed the reputation that they weren't susceptible to various kinds of malicious software as Windows machines are, because of the inherent strength of the Mac OS X platform. Many observers have also argued that, because the installed base of Macs was so small, it wasn't worth the effort for a self-respecting hacker. Read more...