By JORDAN ROBERTSON Oct 9, 2008
Even after IBM Corp. surprised Wall Street with a healthy profit in the third quarter and a reaffirmation of its earnings outlook for the rest of the year, the broader technology sector dived again Thursday. There's just not enough of what lifted IBM to go around. Tech stocks were pummeled Thursday, and IBM ended the day down as well. Analysts expressed fears that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM could see trouble in the fourth quarter and into 2009 if the lending and spending climate worsens as expected. Signs of weakness in the just-concluded third quarter could also emerge when IBM releases its full results for the period on Oct. 16. The company announced more than a week early Wednesday that profit per share was 4 cents higher than Wall Street's forecast, helped by an internal clampdown on spending. What IBM didn't include in its short statement was any mention of the value of the new technology services contracts it signed, a key measurement that Wall Street uses to gauge the revenue IBM will be able to count on in coming years. With the deepening distress in the financial services market - which accounts for nearly 30 percent of IBM's sales - analysts fear that IBM has taken a big hit like other companies in the past few weeks, damage that wouldn't show up until the fourth quarter.
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
Microsoft Preps External Blu-Ray Disc Optical Drive for Xbox 360.
Microsoft Has Blu-Ray Drive for Xbox 360 Ready, Release Date Under Consideration
by Anton Shilov 10/08/2008
Unlike Toshiba Corp., which is still strictly against Blu-ray disc (BD) format, Microsoft Corp. has always said that it might release an external Blu-ray optical disc drive for the Xbox 360 video game system if there is demand. According to market sources, the software giant does have plans to offer its customers a BD option. Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology Corp., a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Toshiba Corp., has been contracted to manufacture external Blu-ray disc drives for Microsoft Xbox 360 game console. While the exact specifications of the product are unknown, it is rumoured that Microsoft aims at $100 - $150 price-point for the device in order to compete against Sony PlayStation 3 with Xbox 360 + external Blu-ray drive combination. The main reason why Microsoft is unenthusiastic regarding Blu-ray is mandatory support of BD-Java interactive technology and Sony’s reluctance to adopt competing tech called HDi that was developed by Microsoft. Even though Microsoft managed to push its VC-1 codec onto both Blu-ray and HD DVD markets, the company’s negative attitude towards Java prevented it from supporting the former standard in general. As a result, the company used to sell external HD DVD drive for Xbox 360.
Read more here -->Link
by Anton Shilov 10/08/2008
Unlike Toshiba Corp., which is still strictly against Blu-ray disc (BD) format, Microsoft Corp. has always said that it might release an external Blu-ray optical disc drive for the Xbox 360 video game system if there is demand. According to market sources, the software giant does have plans to offer its customers a BD option. Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology Corp., a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Toshiba Corp., has been contracted to manufacture external Blu-ray disc drives for Microsoft Xbox 360 game console. While the exact specifications of the product are unknown, it is rumoured that Microsoft aims at $100 - $150 price-point for the device in order to compete against Sony PlayStation 3 with Xbox 360 + external Blu-ray drive combination. The main reason why Microsoft is unenthusiastic regarding Blu-ray is mandatory support of BD-Java interactive technology and Sony’s reluctance to adopt competing tech called HDi that was developed by Microsoft. Even though Microsoft managed to push its VC-1 codec onto both Blu-ray and HD DVD markets, the company’s negative attitude towards Java prevented it from supporting the former standard in general. As a result, the company used to sell external HD DVD drive for Xbox 360.
Read more here -->Link
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