Telstra sells 690,000 iPhone and Android devices in Q1+2
In addition to the rollout of LTE 4G network spruiked on Tuesday and a 36% half-yearly profit drop, there was some interesting news in CEO David Thodey’s results reporting last Friday. As well as one million new customers joining the telco in the six months to the end of 2010, Telstra sold 690,000 iPhone and Android devices, as well as 70,000 iPads. The prediction that mobile device sales will outstrip PC sales in 2011 is firming up based on these and other indicators.
Nokia and Microsoft unite in smartphone wars
As the battle for smartphone market share intensifies over the last week we have seen Nokia announce it will use the Windows Phone platform for its smartphones as part of new chief executive Stephen Elop’s revamp of the world’s biggest mobile phone maker. News came yesterday from Barcelona’s World Mobile Congress that Google tried hard to win Nokia over to its Android mobile platform before it finally chose Microsoft.
Dell shares jump after profit triples
Fourth-quarter earnings nearly tripled for one of the world’s most recognised hardware makers with strong demand from corporate customers and lower component prices pushing up the company’s gross margin. Dell announced on Wednesday that its margin jumped to 21 per cent from 16.6 per cent, and excluding costs, the company’s gross margin was 21.5 per cent, representing profit of $US927 million, or US48 cents a share, up from $US334m, or US17c a share YOY.
Business analytics investment to increase in 2011
A new report by Sydney-based Altis consulting has revealed that the use of business analytics and data mining will become increasingly important in 2011. The survey, completed by 82 IT professionals across Australia and New Zealand, found that 37 percent of IT professionals are investing in business analytics to drive operational improvement while one in four are deploying analytics to better understand customers in support of their customer relationship management programs. Underpinning these investments is an overall increase in investment in corporate reporting and use of business analytics in 2011, according to 47% of the responders. The report also found that only six percent are investing in analytics to combat fraud. The 2010 KPMG Fraud Barometer also found that the average value of fraud cases was over $2 million in 2010 but it seems that IT professionals have not been tasked to date in deploying data analytics to reduce this pressing business problem. Marcel van Rooyen, Business Analytics Practice Leader, said, “This is a result of the perceived expense to build and support a fraud detection and investigation team and the potential risk of not getting the return on the investment.”
Yellowfin business intelligence app goes Android
The march to Android continues. Developers of mobile business intelligence solutions Yellowfin has released a dedicated android application that gives users the ability to run and access Yellowfin reporting and analytics solutions on android devices, matching existing software capability for current Yellowfin iPhone and iPad app versions.
AVG survey highlights security issues for smart devices
A new survey released by AVG Technologies and the Ponemon Institute this week has revealed that more than a third of smartphone users across all platforms are not aware of increasing security risks associated with smart device use. According to the survey of 734 respondents:
- 13% of users said location data had been unknowingly embedded on their handset enabling others to track their location. Only 21% of respondents were aware this could happen.
- 6% said that mobile applications had transmitted confidential payment information such as credit card details without the users’ knowledge or consent, with only 11% aware this was possible.
- 8% of smartphone users said their handset had been infected by ‘diallerware’ malware that enables criminals to make use of premium services or phone numbers resulting in unexpected monthly charges. Only 10 percent of respondents knew of this potential risk.
The AVG report summary available here.
New business comms channel report
A new survey commissioned by Fonality has looked at new channels for business-related communications. Almost one quarter (22%) of Gen Y (18 – 24) and X (25 – 34) staff access work emails on their mobiles. Only 6% of 55-64 year olds do them same. On average, 15% Australians use their mobile phone for work email. 25% of men versus 18% of women stated they would use instant messaging for work, while women had a greater tendency to use social media to stay in touch with colleagues, partners and customers (21% versus 16% of men).
Pacnet data centre launches
Pacnet announced this week the launch of its Sydney Data Centre, the company’s latest investment into Australia designed to meet the rapidly growing hosting and co-location market. According to Frost & Sullivan, the demand for data centre services in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) is forecast to see a compound annual growth rate of 13.9% from US$442.3m in 2009 to US$1.1b in 2016. The research firm also noted in a report that in 2009, capacity utilisation in most data centres in ANZ was between 80-90%. “By locating our new data centre in the central business district of Sydney, customers will also save significant time and cost should they need to visit the facility,“ said Deborah Homewood, Chief Executive Officer of Pacnet Australia and New Zealand.
NICTA Techfest—register today
The free NICTA techfest event will be held next Wednesday but pre-registration is required by today (Feb 18). Sessions include NBN applications, tools for eGovernment, cloud computing, sustainability, transport and logistics. Visit www.nicta.com.au/techfest2011 to register and for more info.
Meru Networks patent to address Wi-Fi network congestion
Australian Wavelink Communications have announced that Meru Networks, a virtualised 802.11n enterprise wireless networking company and Wavelink Communications, has been awarded a patent for its new virtualised wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture. Wavelink Communications are a value-added reseller of Meru Networks products into Australia. The new Meru Networks’ technology provides wired switch-like bandwidth optimisation and security for enterprises that need to manage environments with a growing density of smartphone mobile devices. “The technology is built to avoid Wi-Fi meltdowns as more and more businesses are looking to understand how to avoid them,” said Rubin.
Data mining software offers clarity
A new Melbourne-based IT software operation BIZClarity Pty. Ltd has created new software to provide transparency across business processes. The Futura package launched this week is a data mining process which identifies bottlenecks and checks compliance. BIZclarity say their product can streamline document processes, make highly complex event chains transparent and easy to visualise, and to change and control.
Internode tops customer satisfaction polls
Australian broadband leader Internode has again topped an independent customer satisfaction survey run by Roy Morgan Research, with a 95 per cent positive rating – ahead of the 73 per cent industry average. Based on a survey of more than 6000 Australian Internet customers during the six months to November 2010, Roy Morgan reports that Internode continues to lead with 95 per cent of its customers stating they were “Very” or “Fairly” satisfied.
