Smart Office

Menu

Oonagh Reidy

Apotheker Ousting: HP ‘Flailing’, As Future Hangs In Balance

by

HP has crash landed and is a risk to anyone who does business with it, analysts have warned.

This warning comes as rumours circulate about the future of HP boss Leo Apotkeker, who may be about to be replaced by ex eBay chief Meg Whitman.


Click to enlarge
Beleaguered HP CEO, Leo Apotheker.

“HP is flailing, causing more uncertainty and increasing the risk of doing business with it,” Carter Lusher, Ovum analyst has warned.

This stark estimation of the the fortunes of the biggest PC and printer maker globally, comes as HP’s board of directors are said to be “thrashing out a host of issues, including whether to name Whitman as the interim CEO,” say sources.

And what’s worse, companies and IT personnell should avoid making “major commitments” to HP products given the uncertainty surrounding the brand.

And ditto for resellers too, it appears.

“CIOs should beware of the downsides of making major commitments to HP products and services.” the Ovum analyst advises.

 Read HP Boss To Get The Boot & Replaced By eBay Chief? Here

“Whether or not the rumor is correct or not, the damage has already been done” and “only reinforces that HP is a company that is in severe disarray.”

This possible ousting of HP boss comes just weeks after it announced it would get rid of spin off its profitable hardware business and focus on software and cloud services for business, instead, as it tablet failed to make an impact against the domination of iPad. 

But the malaise within Palo Alto may have less to do with former SAP chief Apotheker and more to do with the board, who have ousted two CEO’s in the last three years.

“That the Board would be considering a change in CEO less that 10 months after Apotheker took over as CEO is a damning indictment of not just the new CEO, but also the Board itself.”

And analysts elsewhere are singing the same song:  “he was doomed from the beginning,” Brian White, Ticonderoga Securities, said, referring to the now beleaguered Apotheker.

“The die was cast for whoever stepped into that position.”

HP shares immediately rose up 6.6% to close at $23.96 yesterday on the US stock markets, following the news.

However, staff at webOS, the abandoned platform for tablets who are also being layed off, may just be the first of a flight of staff absconding from the clutches of Palo Alto, analysts predict.

The employees at HP are “demoralized” after years of severe cost cutting, layoffs, so it is likely other “key executives” are getting ready to walk or are already “mentally out the door, ” Lusher also believes.

And if Apotheker is fired, expect armagaddon at the No.1 PC company by sales and spooked investors may even demand the company be broken up to unlock the remaining value of the Palo Alto giant.

 

CIO and IT firms alike should assign a “risk premium” to dealing with HP and demand better discounts, pricing, or packaging and also explore new terms and conditions that protect the company should HP be broken up. 
 

Retail Landslide: David Jones Profits Down As Sales Slip Down 4%

by

Down, down, profits are down: Dull trading bites DJ as profits, sales fall as the high end retailer feels the pinch.


Click to enlarge

The results for 2011 financial year for David Jones, just announced, paint a somewhat bleak picture for outlook for retail on the high street, with profit after tax down 1.5% to $170.8 million, sales down 4.4% to $2053.1m.

DJ boss blamed “extremely challenging retail conditions” and investment in new IT and point of sale systems for the profit drop, which saw earning slip 1.1% from $249.2m to $246.5m.

The clothing giant, fronted by model Miranda Kerr, is just one of several big names reporting bad trading conditions of late, blamed on strong Aussie dollar and poor consumer sentiment amid global financial tumult.

June and July were singled out as particularly dreary months at the tills although profit drop was in line with guidance of -0.5 to -0.2%, at the company which counts high end brands like Hugo Boss Women, Gucci Jewellery and Kardashian Kollections as its own.

However, sales for Q1 2012 looks to be even worse with sales forecast to drop a phenomenal 10% and profit after tax guidance ofbetween -15% to -20%.

Nonetheless, Paul Zahra, DJ’s  Chief,  is confident of the road ahead, despite the slump and has “strong balance sheet, low debt, solid cash flows.”  Cost of business also fell as management look to increase efficiency amid the poor trading conditions and slumpy sales.

“Throughout 2011 we made a conscious decision to invest in initiatives that would secure the long term success of our business and establish us as a successful multi channel retails.” 

DJ has also bolstered its online store, adding 2500 items to buy via the web, developed Facebook and Twitter accounts, introduced customer promotions and events like Girls Night Out and 4 Day Customer Shopping Event. 

“We have over the past 12 months invested in many initiatves that will deliver long term growth for our business that will generate sales in other ways than thorugh constant discounting.”

5 new stores are planned including one in Highpoint Victoria as well as outlets in Macquarie NSW, Whitford WA, and two in Qld. Several refurbished stores are performing well despite the difficult environment, Zahra insisted.

 

“We are well positioned ot trade through the current challenging environment and deliver sharegolder value over time,” Zahra reassured investors. Full year dividend per share is 28c, down from 30c in 2010.

Where’s Steve? Apple In Secret Talks To Replace CEO

by

Reports are emerging that Apple board members are pondering the replacement of their legendary CEO Steve Jobs.However, Jobs is said to be unaware of the replacement talks, reported to be talking placed among a select number of Apple board members, although not all. 

 The story, which first appeared in the Wall Street Journal, is said to have been rubbished by Jobs, who reportedly said the story was “hogwash.” 
Jobs, who is on his third medical leave of absence, has in the past fought pancreatic cancer and also undergone a liver transplant.

Telstra To Pounce Packers 25% Foxtel?

by

Telstra and News Ltd are said to be eying a further 25% stake in Pay TV giant as James Packer looks to sell up.


Click to enlarge

The move could see Telstra who currently own 50% of Foxtel, along with News Limited and Consolidated Media Holding, both of whom hold a 25% stake, dramatically increase its ownership of the Pay TV giant.

Packer, who owns a 50% stake in Consolidated Media Holdings is said to be about to sell his Foxtel stake, as he looks to focus on his casino interests, eyeing a potential merger between Crown Casino in Melbourne and Sydney’s newly revamped Star.

News Limited are also toying with the idea of increasing its ownership in Foxtel, reports The Australian.

Telstra CEO David Thodey recent declared his telco could be interested in increasing its stake in Foxtel pushing its ownership to 75%, making News the minority shareholder.

But according to The Australian, News Limited would have “first rights” to purchase the stake held by Consolidated Media.

And any purchase by Telstra would have the competition watchdog sniffing around, something which Thodey noted when asked by investors recently:

“If James Packer was selling that asset, yes we would consider it but there are many things we need to consider — the regulator, the price and what we would do with it in the future,” he said.

The sale process is said to have commenced in the last month, although there has been no formal soundings on any sale.

Mr Packer could ask for $4 per share, pushing the sale price towards the $1bn mark.

 

Foxtel’s future also looks significantly brighter since its recent $2bn bid for regional player Austar was approved by the ACCC.

Telstra have been expanding their digital media business of late and have established a separate business to deal solely with its multimedia interests including video, so more control over Foxtel content could be very useful.

The telco did not reply to comment when contacted by Smarthouse.

Hack Attack! Porn Site Data Nicked

by

Porn site is the latest hacking victim, which has seen more than 70,000 subscriber names nicked.
The cheeky hackers of Digital Playground – one of the biggest porn sites in the world – also stole credit card details, passwords and email details, reports BBC.
 
Hacker group ‘The Consortium’ claims it is behind the latest security breach to hit the web and posted details of stolen data online yesterday. However, the hackers say it isn’t planning to release the 40,000 credit cards details it stole.

The hackers said the porn site’s security was a “joke” and the amount of holes in Digital Playground’s web security made it impossible to resist. 


Click to enlarge

“This company has security, that if we didn’t know it was a real business, we would have thought to be a joke – a joke that we found much more amusing than they will,” The Consortium  wrote on an online notice, according to Sophos blog Naked Security.

The credit cards are in plain text but the hackers said it will not be releasing the details, although it did make available 52 porno movie titles online, including ‘Babysitters 2’, “Like Sister Like Slut” and “Sex and Corruption. “

“We do this for the love of the game not for profit and these peoples only crime was wanting some porn.”

“We cannot justify releasing these peoples credit card info, but remember it is DP that allowed this to happen.”

 

Digital Playground is currently operational but are refusing to admit any new members at the moment.

This is the first big hack by The Consortium, who appear to be affiliated with notorious group Anonymous, according to reports.

IBM Top Cloud Co: Study

by

A major study into cloud has given IBM the thumbs up.


Click to enlarge

The report, released this week by Longhaus, selects IBM as the top infrastructure-as-a-service Cloud for enterprise in Australia, citing its flexible billing options and low commitment formula.

“IBM’s smart Cloud enterprise is established in six Cloud data centres globally, including two onshore Australian centres, enabling clients to run workloads across any centre of choice,” said Longhaus MD, Peter Carr.

IBM’s cloud came ahead of rivals Wipro, Datacom, Emantra and Fujitsu who were also among the top 5 providers here, among 175 companies globally currently offering service to the Oz market.

No. 2 Whipro “will be a surprise to many,” Longhaus conceded but “while Wipro’s in-country marketing is no indicator of cloud capability, they are highly resourced and will be a new leader to watch in the ‘API Economy’.”

Area9, a Darwin based cloud enterprise was also given the nod for ‘Rising Star’ and although it is predominant in Northern Australia, it could soon extend its capabilities into South East Asia, Carr noted.

The cloud market is now hitting maturity the report also stated, with over one third of providers experiencing outages in the last 12 months.

Key emerging cloud trends include: ‘Business-as-a-Service’, where, for example, an airline pays their cloud provider on a per-suitcase processed through the entire baggage handling systems.

 “This is game-changing and takes the challenge of consumption-based pricing to a whole new level,” says Longhaus senior research director, Scott Stewart.

Another trend emerging is “a whole new market where pure-play IaaS providers such as Amazon are enabling a massive pool of non-cloud professional services companies including KPMG, Accenture and Deloitte to now deliver cloud services.”

This will add a completely new dimension to the category and place challenges on the current cloud leaders, Stewart warns.
 

 

What it means is “watch out IBM, Wipro, Fujitsu, CSC and others, your competitive landscape is rapidly shifting ground.”

Cloud API (Application Programming Interfaces) economy in its own right was another trend emerging on the cloud.

Google Glasses, ‘Wired’ Dresses: Tech-U-Wear To EXPLODE

by

If the tech fits.. Google glasses, wired bras – tech u wear is set to take off. In a big way.


Click to enlarge

As if technology isn’t fashionable enough at the moment (think how proud owners flash their latest smartie, iPad), demand for augmented-reality eyeglasses, as debuted by Google (basically a smartphone on specs), cocktail dresses that light up when your phone rings and sports bras that monitor heart rates, is set to explode, IMS analysts reckon.

Wearable tech are devices that are worn on the body for an extended period, enhancing user experience via features like  wireless connectivity and independent-processing capability.

But now with tech advancements, there is “major potential for growth in all kinds of wearable technology products,” IMS predicts. 

By a whopping 500% in 4 years, meaning a lot more of us will be sporting gaming vests, smartwatches that sync with your phone and health monitoring wristbands.

Hell, Nokia have even patented a ‘vibrating tattoo’ which alerts you when your phone goes off, using ferromagnetic ink.

The wearable technology market is likely to rise fivefold by 2016 to almost 93 million units, tech researchers IMS said today. In 2011, just 14 m wearable devices were shipped.


Click to enlarge

Wearable tech already has huge appeal for fitness fanatics who check heart rates and running times on mobile devices like the iPhone, but future smart devices will transmit real-time info like news, maps or cinema times, with the potential to be used for more serious medical purposes such as monitoring vital health signs and augmented senses, says IMS.

Google Glasses, unveiled earlier this year, are a pair of augmented reality glasses that feed information across the (left lens) screen including emails, video chat, Google searches and GPS directions. AR may play a big part in the wearable tech field in the future. Nokia already uses AR navigation on its newly unveiled Windows 8 phones as does BlackBerry.

Analysts are also predicting “significant progress” in wearable technology, including new products that are produced in mass numbers, with Adidas, Nike among the major names and already flogging devices.

 

In other words, the sky is the limit as far as what tech will bring so who knows what wired devices we’ ll be wearing a few years time.

“Wearable technologies provide a range of benefits to users, from informing and entertaining, to monitoring health, to improving fitness, to enhancing military and industry applications,” said Theo Ahadome, senior analyst for medical research at IMS Research.

The United States is the leading region for wearable devices at present along with Europe and Japan. 

Hello, Cloud: 230,000 Ditch Copper For VoIP

by

Cloud telephony taking off as Aussies disconnect from old copper network

Cloud telephony is on the rise, MyNetFone says it has ported almost quarter of a million users  (over 230K) switching to Voice over IP services. 
The telco say it due to Number Porting, which allows users to retain existing phone numbers when they switch over to a ‘virtual’ Internet based VoIP service, hosted in the cloud. 
Cloud telephony, a virtual phone system based on VoIP technology, gives business functionality similar to traditional PBXls, like call hold, transfers, conference calls and Interactive Voice Response.

MyNetFone CEO, Rene Sugo puts it down to more consumers understanding the cloud and Voice over IP. 

“As the OCloud becomes more understood and accepted, we’re seeing far greater interest in cloud-based telephony, using Voice over IP,” said Sugo. 
“Number Porting makes it quick and simple to switch from copper to cloud, and this is reflected in the ever increasing volume of phone numbers that we move into the cloud and host on our network.”
And its cheaper.
Plan start at $9.95 for residential users, and $60 for business users.  
A business located in Melbourne can get local numbers in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth making it easy for local customers to call them.
“Whilst many people focus on data when it comes to the NBN, it also spells the end of traditional voice services. Bundling of VoIP and data services will be the norm in two to three years, ” says MyNetFone boss.   

Telco’s To Chop Roaming Charges?

by

Ever get a nasty bill after a holiday? Well, Stephen Conroy has declared war on romaing and is hatching a plan to chop extortionate charges across the ditch.

Minister for Broadband, Communications and his New Zealand counterpart Amy Adams MP, today released a draft report that says telcos are making “excessive” profits from trans-Tasman mobile roaming charges.

Both governments are now considering their options and whether or not to put “downward pressure” on mobile prices, or even force telcos like Optus, Telstra et al to scrap the extortionate roaming charges altogether.

The “options” open to the governments include improving pricing transparency of roaming charges or allow roamers to become local end-users, so they are charged local instead of overseas mobile prices.

The radical change could be in place within twelve months and means Ausies and Kiwis who use their mobile while travelling across the ditch know exactly what it will cost.

Unbundling roaming services so people can use one network for domestic communications and a different network for trans-Tasman roaming and introducing price caps are the other proposals put forward by the report.

Minister Conroy is now directing the Australian Communications and Media Authority to put in place an industry standard for mobile roaming, so consumers are aware of the precise charges.

“The draft report makes it clear that telecommunications companies are stinging consumers on trans-Tasman mobile roaming charges and that their profit margins are excessive,” Minister Conroy said.

“While this report focuses on travellers between Australia and New Zealand, we know that high mobile roaming charges affect Australians in every country they visit.”

“One of the most common complaints that I hear is from people who return from overseas and are confronted by a mobile phone bill that runs into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

 

Consumers are angry about the excessive charges and about not knowing how much they are being charged,” he added.

The Australian and New Zealand governments are now seeking submissions on the draft report from consumers, the telecommunications industry, and other stakeholders, which will inform the response adopted.