Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device

By Larry Dignan | July 25, 2011, 5:13am PDT

Summary

Research in Motion will lay off 2,000 employees as it struggles to navigate a void in its product line-up as well as lower-than-expected sales.

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Research in Motion said Monday it will lay off 2,000 employees as it struggles to navigate a void in its product line-up as well as lower-than-expected sales.

When the layoffs are complete, RIM will have about 17,000 employees globally. The company said that it will take a charge in its fiscal second quarter and exact figures will be disclosed when RIM reports earning Sept. 15.

Along with the layoffs, RIM is shuffling its executive suite. First, Don Morrison, RIM’s chief operating officer who is currently on medical leave, will retire. Thorsten Heins will become chief operating officer for product and sales. In a nutshell, all product engineering—hardware and software—will be consolidated under Thorsten.

Patrick Spence will become managing director of global sales and regional marketing. Spence will report to Heins.

Among other key management roles at RIM:

• Robin Bienfait will become responsible to RIM’s enterprise unit. She is already RIM’s CIO focused on BlackBerry operations, customer service and corporate IT.
• David Yach, CTO of software, will focus on RIM’s developer relations and application ecosystem.
• Jim Rowan will be chief operating officer of operations and focus on manufacturing, supply chain and repair. Rowan and CFO Brian Bidulka will oversee RIM’s current cost cutting efforts.

Overall, these moves are designed to help RIM “create greater alignment of the organization” and “streamline operations to better position the company for future growth and profitability.” However, RIM needs to get on the board with new products more than anything. RIM needs a hit device more than cost cutting moves.

RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis took some heat from shareholders earlier this month at the company’s annual meeting. The co-CEOs talked up RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry OS 7.0 devices and the company’s next big product launches. The problem is that these devices are the warm-up act for so-called superphones powered by the QNX operating system.

Some analysts are questioning the leadership of Balsillie and Lazaridis and have noted that RIM has missed key inflection points in the smartphone industry. Specifically, RIM has wrestled with the software integration with its hardware. In the meantime, RIM’s market share in the smartphone industry continues to erode.

Today’s cost-cutting efforts are designed to help RIM hold the fort until its new products juice growth. At least that’s the plan of Balsillie and Lazaridis.

RIM has made a series of acquisitions to better compete on the software front. For instance, RIM acquired JayCut last week. And last year RIM acquired The Astonishing Tribe, a user interface optimization firm. Before that purchase RIM bought Torch Mobile and QNX. Add it up and RIM is serious about software, but it’s unclear whether the company can master hardware, software and the necessary integration in between. Balsillie has argued that the next wave of RIM products will set the company up for the next decade, but skeptics abound.

Related:

Vultures circle RIM management: BlackBerry 7 devices as savior?

• BlackBerry PlayBook vs. HP TouchPad: A tale of two failures
• RIM confirms new BlackBerry Bold 9900 “will be available this summer”
• Apple’s iOS zips past RIM as Blackberry product vacuum continues
• AT&T finally approves BlackBerry Bridge app, slaps on $20/month for tethering
• AT&T releases BlackBerry Bridge for the PlayBook over 2 months after release
• Alas, poor RIM and BlackBerry, we knew them well
• RIM’s conundrum: Convincing you to buy a BlackBerry 7.0 device?

CNET: RIM, the picture of a top-heavy company

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/research-in-motion-lays-off-2000-workers-still-needs-a-hit-device/53076?tag=nl.e539

Google ready to settle with Oracle over Android IP?

By Larry Dignan | July 20, 2011, 2:20pm PDT

Summary

Google and Oracle continue to bicker over whether their courtroom battle over whether Android infringes on Java patents, but there’s at least a hint that the search giant may want to settle out of court.

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Google and Oracle continue to bicker over whether their courtroom battle over whether Android infringes on Java patents, but there’s at least a hint that the search giant may want to settle out of court.

The two parties filed a joint response focusing on whether their trial should be stayed as Oracle’s patent standing is resolved. Not surprisingly, Google wants a stay. Oracle wants to go to trial without a stay so it can pelt Google with every patent it has. Florian Mueller has the recap of the stay issue and the Oracle and Google back and forth.

However, the one line that caught Mueller’s eye is the passage below. The document is embedded via Scribd below.

Indeed, should this case be narrowed to only a few claims modified in the course of the reexamination, any damages claim would be materially limited by, among other things, the doctrine of intervening rights. Such a narrowed case will also eliminate the need for those efforts specifically directed at the claims rejected through reexamination, including motion practice, expert reports, and other trial preparation, as well as make it more likely that the parties could reach an informal resolution of the matter. In short, both parties and the Court would benefit from a stay pending reexamination.

Informal resolution? Google appears to be willing to pass a few billion to resolve this IP nightmare.

Mueller noted:

In principle, it’s constructive if a party indicates a willingness to settle. But there’s a fundamental difference between negotiating in private and letting the court (as well as the public) know — more than three months before the scheduled trial (!) — that one isn’t so sure of one’s defenses anymore. This stands in clear contradiction to Google’s past positions and declarations, and it looks increasingly like an admission all by itself. Discovery is almost complete, and it probably didn’t go too well for Google.

In other words, Oracle clearly has Google in the crosshairs. Oracle argued that the case needs to be resolved quickly because Android is gaining share and the infringement will only get worse. The possible outcomes go like this:

• The judge decides on a stay and the two parties may settle.
• The judge agrees with Oracle and this lawsuit goes to trial. A good scenario for Oracle.
• Oracle sees that “informal resolution” remark and the two parties start talking.

Also see:

• Oracle looks for Page pyrotechnics in Google Android lawsuit
• Google pans Oracle damages argument: Java was fragmented well before Android

googorcl072011

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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-ready-to-settle-with-oracle-over-android-ip/52884

SeaMicro ups Atom-based server ante: 6 dual core servers in 5 x 11 space

By Larry Dignan | July 17, 2011, 9:00pm PDT

Summary

SeaMicro is launching its second Atom-based server, the SM10000-64-HD, as it ups the ante on power sipping performance.
The startup server vendor made a splash with its SM10000, which is powered by dozens of Atom chips from Intel. SeaMicro’s plan is relatively simple yet difficult to actually pull off: Cut power and save space in the [...]

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SeaMicro is launching its second Atom-based server, the SM10000-64-HD, as it ups the ante on power sipping performance.

The startup server vendor made a splash with its SM10000, which is powered by dozens of Atom chips from Intel. SeaMicro’s plan is relatively simple yet difficult to actually pull off: Cut power and save space in the data center.

Andrew Feldman, CEO of SeaMicro, said its latest server packs six dual core servers in a 5 x 11 inch space with 384 sockets and 768 cores per system. The previous version had four dual core servers in a space the size of a credit card.

For SeaMicro the SM10000-64-HD is the second installment on the path to becoming a “full service server company” by the middle of 2012. SeaMicro is also looking to be processor agnostic and will launch ARM servers once credible chips emerge next year. Feldman has built engineering and manufacturing in Santa Clara, Calif. His main beef with the server industry is that it has become focused on costs and supply chain and neglected the engineering.

In the data center the SeaMicro SM10000-64-HD can replace 60 traditional servers with a quarter of the power and weight and one-sixth of the space. Feldman said SeaMicro’s expanding customer base on four continents is typically of the Web variety and companies with simple frequent workloads. Named customers include France Telecom, eHarmony, Skype, Mozilla and China Netcom.

“The SM10000-64-HD gives us a chance to win new customers, primarily Web companies,” said Feldman. The ROI equation for SeaMicro boxes is clear cut. Companies looking to save on power and space are adopting SeaMicro. Other customers are renting racks and looking to save power. Meanwhile, hosting companies are also buying SeaMicro’s wares because the savings can flow to the bottom line. “If you are a managed host company you pay for power and space. These can be margin preservers,” said Feldman.

The SM10000-64-HD will run you $239,000 a system compared to its predecessor, which costs $150,000 each.

The larger question is whether and when SeaMicro will get enterprise traction. “The enterprise is closing the gap slowly,” said Feldman. “The Web and Internet world are a year or two ahead of the enterprise. Web companies don’t have another business to worry about. For a Web provider your costs are engineers, servers, power and space.”

Feldman said it’s unclear whether SeaMicro will reach the enterprise indirectly via cloud and hosting providers or with partners. “In the short-term we chose not to get a sales force to chase everyone down and will focus on partners,” said Feldman.

One thing is clear: SeaMicro’s servers will become of interest to enterprises due to the potential of saving $20 million over three years based on the company’s total cost of ownership pitch. What’s not to like about a lot of horsepower in a package that takes up less space and sips energy?

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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/seamicro-ups-atom-based-server-ante-6-dual-core-servers-in-5-x-11-space/52288

IBM's second quarter: Riding mainframe, server refresh cycles

By Larry Dignan | July 18, 2011, 1:33am PDT

Summary

IBM on Monday reports its second quarter results and the company is likely to chug along on multiple fronts as it rides a mainframe and server refresh cycle.

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IBM on Monday reports its second quarter results and the company is likely to chug along on multiple fronts as it rides a mainframe and server refresh cycle.

Analysts note that strong results from Accenture as well as Oracle bode well for IBM. Wall Street is also upbeat on IBM because it’s an odd technology duck that can perform well in and up or down economy.

Collins Stewart Louis Miscioscia said IBM is likely to deliver another strong quarter. Wall Street is expecting earnings of $3.03 a share on revenue $25.34 billion.

Miscioscia acknowledged that technology spending has hit a lull, but summer is usually a time for a pause. One key topic for IBM this quarter will revolve around hardware. Big Blue is riding a server and mainframe product refresh cycle, but some analysts are wondering how long the good times will last.

In a research note, Miscioscia said:

Our checks continue to indicate that Storage remains the strongest area of IT hardware spend. However, we also believe that servers are staying reasonably strong. Even though year over year compares are getting tougher in the server area, virtualization is driving x86 server demand. In the UNIX server market, we believe that Sun’s weakness is IBM’s (IBM-Buy) benefit. Our view for years has been that Sun, is in a competitively weaker position as the company does not have the scale to compete head-to-head with IBM in a SPARC vs. POWER CPU battle. In addition, IBM is still in the midst of an upgrade cycle on its RISC POWER servers (IBM Power Systems) driving momentum and share gain.

That Power Systems upgrade cycle began Sept. 2010 and those sales gains will make future quarterly comparisons more difficult. Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Grossman said there are some worries about the mainframe upgrade cycle and health of services unit, but concerns are generally overblown.

Grossman said that IBM’s hardware unit will continue to surge. The analyst is projecting hardware revenue to be up 10 percent with software up 12 percent compared to a year ago. Services will be up 7.3 percent, but much of that is sales gains due to a weak dollar.

Recent:

• IBM throws its source code and support behind OpenOffice
• IBM’ers poles apart on Google Plus
• HP vs. Oracle over Itanium: A look at your options
• IBM launches mainframe for midmarket, eyes server consolidation
• IBM launches Web analytics, marketing suite in next phase of commerce push

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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/ibms-second-quarter-riding-mainframe-server-refresh-cycles/52542