The heavy-handed hints that Microsoft Corp has been handing out over the past couple of weeks that perhaps Windows95 is not the complete answer to a desktop maiden’s prayer and that really serious users (who isn’t, these days?) might like to consider whether going straight to Windows NT with the Windows95 user interface for it is ready (whenever that might be), leaves users with a big headache, especially when they also know that NT and 95 are heading for the same destination but may not get there until 1998; it all certainly sounds like a good reason for sitting out the initial rush for Windows95, unless you really, really need 32-bit applications now; on the other hand it could just come to be seen as the first really good reason for throwing in the Microsoft towel and switching to IBM Corp’s OS/2 Warp.
Oracle Corp signalled that it is now firmly in acquisitions mode by naming its senior vice-president in charge of acquisitions, direct investment and licensing David Roux to its executive management committee: he was added to the executive committee because the area he is covering is strategically really important to the company, it said.
Latest intelligence is that IBM Corp has tentatively pencilled in June 22 for the announcement of the PowerPC-based models of the AS/400.
Unisys Corp is looking for its Opus parallel server to win it 30% to 40% of the market by the end of the decade; the company expects $100m in Opus sales this year with substantial growth in the future.
Presenting an opportunity for the likes of Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Cyrix Corp, Intel Corp plans to phase out manufacturing of almost all versions of the 80486 by the end of this year, with only low-power versions for low-end notebooks surviving: Intel is expected to stop production of 80486SX and 80486DX chips at mid-year and cut back on 80486DX2 and DX4 production more and more each quarter this year, does this mean that people wanting a reasonably-configured personal computer for $700 to $800 will be able to get a Pentium machine at that price by year-end?
Not at all peaky: Our order backlog remains at a healthy level and we are confident that we should be able to show further good progress in 1995, chairman Ken Maud told the annual meeting of traffic and field data systems group Peek Plc.
Cray Research Inc and Oracle Corp are working together to enhance the performance of Oracle7 on the Sparc-based Cray Superserver 6400: the resulting product will aim to provide superior response times for enterprise computing applications, so that businesses with thousands of concurrent users can run data warehousing, high-end decision support systems and transaction processing against very large databases ranging from 50Gb to many Terabytes; the deal also calls for joint marketing of the optimised product; the system begins at under $400,000, and can be configured with up to 64 SuperSparc processors and more than 5Tb of disk storage.
Don Cruickshank, UK Director General of Telecommunications yesterday referred the telephone number portability issue to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, calling the affair his top priority: referral follows failure of British Telecommunications Plc to agree to a modification to its operating licence, which would have enabled the Director General to determine how the costs of number portability should be borne; the Commission will have six months to investigate the issue and report to the Director General.
3DO Co will show off its new M2 64-bit architecture incorporating the PowerPC chip on Tuesday for its Interactive Multiplayers at a demonstration in New York on Tuesday.
Xerox Corp has persuaded Guaranty National Corp to pay over $100m for its Viking Insurance Holdings Inc: proceeds from the sale will be used largely to pay down Xerox debt in line with its Grand Old Duke of York strategy to disengage from all its financial services businesses.
EMC Corp says it more than doubled its Asia Pacific revenue in the first qua
rter of this year: We expect to continue the momentum and grow between 70% to 80% in the next two years, EMC South Asia regional manager Sanjay Sharma announced; the company did not give revenue figures but reckons it has 15% market share in Singapore, 8% in Malaysia and 9% in Indonesia; it opened EMC Computer Systems (South Asia) Pte Asia in Singapore to serve as its regional headquarters.
IBM Corp will offer a specially-priced college bookstore edition of OS/2 Warp: it expects the academic edition to sell for a street price of $60 to $65, against $80 outside.
Cheil Foods & Chemicals Co Ltd, a former subsidiary of Samsung Group, is to buy a $300m stake in the new Hollywood studio DreamWorks SKG, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Southern New England Telecommunications Corp, New Haven, Connecticut is to file with the Federal Communications Commission today to ask permission to offer commercial video dial-tone services throughout Connecticut: services will include broadcast television, premium broadcast channels, pay-per-view, and ultimately movies on demand, interactive shopping and games, and educational services among others.
Commenting on its first quarter figures (page seven) Xerox Corp says that its worldwide workforce in document processing fell by 1,300 to 86,300, and overall the restructuring resulted in a reduction of 1,900 employees, partially offset by the addition of 600 staffers to support the high growth facilities management business; operations in Brazil and Europe achieved double-digit revenue growth and excellent profit growth in the first quarter, and its larger stake in Rank Xerox Ltd is already contributing to earnings.
IBM Corp, and Atex Inc this time, have won another Repetitive Strain Injury lawsuit as a federal jury decided that the companies were not to blame for the painful wrist condition a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter developed after hours at keyboards; the jury decided that neither production defects nor design flaws in keyboards caused Larry Lewis’s carpal tunnel syndrome.
Rogers Communications Inc and AT&T Corp have agreed to extend financing of over $30m to enable troubled Unitel Communications Holdings Inc to aggressively compete in the Canadian long-distance phone market over the next two months: during the two months, discussions among the holders will continue on funds, ownership and other issues.
UK subscribers to CompuServe can now go shopping on-line courtesy of its new service launched yesterday: books, compact disks, hi-fi equipment and hardware and software are available from W H Smith, Virgin Megastores, Dixons and PC World.
Nifty Corp, partner of CompuServe INc, says it now has more than 1m subscribers to its Nifty-serve net.
One year after signing an OEM agreement with Novell Inc for its NetWare ISDN products, SCii Telecom SA, a small French ISDN specialist, has signed another with L M Ericsson Telefon AB: under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will use SCii’s Translan NLM and Translan PCR products for its ISDN Teleworker product; SCii notes that Swedish operator Telia AB played an essential role in the agreement, choosing SCii’s products over others in the market; the contract is expected to involve delivery of 5,000 boards in the first year, with up to 10,000 a year thereafter, SCii said; SCii and Ericsson have also agreed to joint development of a personal computer-based ISDN product integrating facsimile modem functions; SCii, which has just reported 1994 sales up 45% to some $6m, does 40% of its business outside France and has approval for 41 products, from 13 countries on five continents, said chief executive Sabri Mered – This process is never finished, of course, as SCii obtained five new approval certificates in the month of March, four in Holland, and one in the UK, he said; SCii also has OEM agreements with Banyan Systems Inc, AT&T Global Information Solutions and Sun Microsystems Inc under its belt.
Israel’s Industry and Trade Ministry has demanded that t
he Cellcom cellular consortium halt distribution of any additional cellular phones until it fixes all the problems with its network: the demand follows numerous complaints to the ministry about problems with what is Israel’s second cellular net; it also demanded that Cellcom compensate subscribers for all the hassle; Cellcom is a joint venture between BellSouth Corp, the Safra brothers of Brazil and Israel’s Discount Investment Corp and it began operations on December 27 to compete with the joint service offered by state monopoly Bezeq Israel Telecommunication Corp Ltd and Motorola Inc; it has signed 80,000 subscribers by offering low rates but has run into technical problems forcing it to cut distribution of phones in some places, including Jerusalem.
Cray Research Inc reports an order for multiple systems from the the military research division of the French Atomic Energy Commission: the order includes the new high-end Cray T932 system, which is due to be installed later this year at the commission’s computer centre near Paris, Cray Research said; terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Motorola Inc’s international cellular infrastructure division has a multi-million dollar contract from Sterling Cellular Ltd of India for a Groupe Speciale Mobile digital cellular phone system with capacity for 100,000 subscriber for Delhi: it will link to EWSD digital phone exchanges from Siemens AG.
