“At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market” - IDC , VP, Bob O’Donnell

The news on declining PC and Microsoft Windows sales have been like a constant barrage of technology changing times, but now IDC now reports what may be the pinnacle of a changing era.

IDC has been tracking the tech industry since 1994 and for the first time in the companies history, global sales of PCs sales took their largest fall ever, dropping 13.9% in Q1 2013. That drop was a worst one than expected.

In an article entitled “Dell Plans A Windows 8 Push But It Seems To Be A Plan Made In Desperation” we just discussed how Dell seems to be sucking their business into a vortex with a dependence on Microsoft that is obviously pretty unhealthy at this point. The IDC press release says that “The impact of slow demand [on PC and Windows sales] has been magnified by the restructuring and reorganizing efforts impacting HP and Dell.” Whether that Dell reorganization effort and upcoming Windows 8 push scheduled in the near future is successful remains to be seen, but based on this current IDC report and the current lack of interest in Windows 8, it doesn’t look hopeful at the moment.

Brand name PC’s aren’t the only ones struggling though. Even your generic whitebox vendors are “struggling to identify growth markets within the U.S.”

Lenovo (the one time IBM machines) appears to be the only brand still doing well in the PC market. IDC says they they remain the exception in the PC group due to a solid execution strategy.

The IDC report is not alone. Gartner also just reported similar statistics. Their statistics say that global PC shipments only dropped 11.2%, but like IDC they too report that Lenovo is the only PC manufacturer making any headway in PC sales.

Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments in the First Quarter of 2013 Drop to Lowest Levels Since Second Quarter of 2009

The world seems to have turned into a George Orwell novel, “1984″. Even democratic America (the most ‘self-professed’ free nation in all the world) acts in ways no different than the most fascist countries. Big Brother is not only watching, but the IRS now admits that they’re reading you’re email as well.

Irony. What would the world be without it. Earlier this year Reuters broke news that the “FTC ends long Google probe with mild reprimand”. It seems that although the American government was looking for wrong-doing on Google’s part and therefore peered into some of their business practices that were questionable, it turned out that Google had actually broken no laws at all. On the other hand, the ACLU recently broke news though that the IRS claims they have the right to set aside the 4^th amendment and do a number of things you‘d probably call illegal and never thought they ever could, and without you even knowing about it.

Not long ago we discussed how Google was assisting citizens a bit in fighting the American governments desire to keep records closed on their information requests from Google. Now, more interesting than that as Techlicious reports, “In the IRS Search Warrant Handbook (PDF), obtained by the ACLU, agents are assured that looking into your digital communiqués without a probable cause warrant is within the bounds of the law.” That news might come as surprising to many. CNET says that, “The rule [the IRS is using] was adopted in the era of telephone modems, BBSs, and UUCP links, long before gigabytes of e-mail stored in the cloud was ever envisioned.” Now government agents are using it to gain the ability to look into electronic activities of all sort – including reading your email - “with no probable cause”

All of this came to light recently when the ACLU shared documents related to an IRS case, the United States v. Warshak, in which government officials claim to have read 27,000 emails without obtaining any form of search warrant before hand.

What do you think can companies and should companies such as Google give up un-warranted access to things such as your own personal and private email account at a mere American government representatives request?

For more information visit the ACLU.

HTC recently supported Facebook so much that they created a phone that includes Facebook Home as the default interface. Yahoo is sort of looking for similar support from Apple on their iPhone and iPad

It’s quite obvious, Yahoo needs help. In the 1990′s they were the talk of the world. They were right up there, and actually beyond, Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek, Lycos and others. In 2000 and beyond though it seems as though Yahoo has struggled to even be remembered at times.

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines

When you rank just above Ask (Jeeves) and AOL, you know you’re not far away from despair. They do deserve some credit though. Out of all the other search engines mentioned above, Yahoo is the only one that still remains a name of any significance. Marissa Meyer, a one time Google exec, came to Yahoo to make changes and try to turn things around. A lot of changes have been made at Yahoo, but things can’t exactly be said to have turned around yet. Marissa seems to be a very determined individual though and that is at least one of the things Yahoo needs.

In a recent article here entitled, “Facebook Home: No Matter How You Look At It, The Facebook Phone Is Actually Here”, Facebook announced their latest set of apps that will turn Android phones into Facebook-centric devices. HTC is even coming out with an HTC One that has Facebook Home as its default interface. It seems as though Yahoo has taken note of Facebook’s latest efforts and may be trying to gain more exposure by creating a likewise mobile experience for a particular group of users.

According to Barron’s, “Yahoo! (YHOO) has been in talks with Apple (AAPL) about how to increase use of Yahoo!’s applications and services on the iPhone”

We can suppose since Facebook has chosen to only provide Facebook Home for Android users at the moment, which means that they’ve completely overlooked Apple users as potential customers for Facebook Home at the moment. This also means that Yahoo is working with Apple at a very opportune time. Opportune perhaps at least for Yahoo. If Apple were to accept such an offer from Yahoo and thus replace Google for search results in iOS, it could cause a huge problem, considering Google search results have been overwhelmingly preferred to Yahoo’s over the years.

Google helps fund a multi-organizational effort to try and stop the kidnapping and selling of humans into modern day slavery & sex-trade

Google is best known for search. Of course they also do literally hundreds of other things these days as well, but one of the least publicized is their philanthropic efforts. Not only does Google maintain the ir own google.org projects (not just dot com), but they invest in a number of other projects that give hope to the common man and the world as a whole.

Back in December of last year we did an article entitled, “The Google Global Impact Awards: Google’s Way Of Acknowledging The Philanthropic Efforts Of Others Through Their Use Of Technology”. The article touched on such philanthropic efforts Google has undertaken. Google’s latest philanthropic work focuses on an attempt to help mainly abused women and children that are in some of the most horrifying situations you can imagine.

Imagine having your daughter is kidnapped. If you don’t have a daughter, picture your wife instead. If you’re not married, go ahead and use your mother in this example. She’s kidnapped, sold on the black market in a place where she’ll never be found, and forced to prostitute her body to hundreds maybe thousands of men, for the rest of her life and tied up like an animal when not being used.

The Polaris Project has joined forces with Liberty Asia and La Strada International, two organizations that both have a strong background in fighting human trafficking in Southeast Asia and Europe, respectively. The three organizations have formed a Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network that will bring together a number of human anti-trafficking hotlines in a great effort to connect previously unconnected human anti-trafficking organizations like never before. By interconnecting human anti-trafficking agencies that were once operating as independent centers gathering information on potential human traffickers as it come is, Project Polaris will collect and compare reports coming in to the various agencies in order to help recognize trends and attack the problems with more congruent information. The data collected can also help prevent future victimization, and provide information so inter-connected as to lead to further anti-trafficking strategies.

According to Wired Google announced just a few days ago that it had already given more than $11 million to the cause in 2011 and now intends to give it $3 million more as part of the Global Impact Award from Google. Google’s Global Impact Awards fund nonprofit ventures that they find have a visionary use of technology.

Find out more at www.polarisproject.org

GM returns to Facebook after the 2012 advertising departure.

Back in December of last year, in an article entitled “Social Networking Use Increases But Some Major Advertisers No Longer See Paid Advertising As A Viable Marketing Resource”, it was said that ”General Motors (the third largest advertiser in the U.S.) made it cleat that they no longer intended to pay for Facebook ads as a means of advertising. Citing the reason as their ineffectiveness as a viable marketing source for GM.” In a nutshell, General Motors was done. No more Facebook advertising. At that time in 2012 GM had told the WSJ that the $10 million that the company had poured into Facebook advertising and it just doesn’t “pay off”. The move was a huge slap in the face for Facebook at the time because GM had made the split with Facebook just a few days before Facebook’s well known and much publicized IPO. Thus in a way smearing Facebook’s reputation and value right before it went on sale to the public.

Well, guess who’s back to Facebook advertising. Yes, GM. It seems things have changed, and well, obviously GM now thinks that Facebook may now have more potentially value than they previously believed.

According to the NY Times, GM has come back to give Facebook another “test”, but this time one that entails a “mobile-only pilot campaign” using “newly available targeting and measurement capabilities on Facebook.”

Not surprisingly, GM has decided to conduct this return to Facebook “test” after reports came out last week that Facebook mobile advertising is probably going to soar this year. E-marketer said that they expect to see Facebook attract $3 of every $10 spent in mobile display advertising this year. I’m certain as well that such breathtaking advertising news got GM execs to thinking, “Hey maybe the ad campaigns are more our fault than Facebooks.”

Stats via e-Marketer

It remains to be seen just how well this GM / Facebook mobile advertising “test”pans out between the two. The stats are surely coming down the line somewhere along the way in 2013/2014.

Dell Corp. seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

In as recent proxy filing written to help bail the company out of some financial hot water, Dell stated that:

“the deteriorating outlook for the PC market as a result of, among other things, smartphones and tablets cannibalizing PC sales, the uncertain adoption of the Windows 8 operating system and unexpected slowdowns in enterprise Windows 7 upgrades, and faster than expected declines in PC shipments in emerging markets”

In claiming that “the uncertain adoption of the Windows 8 operating system” is partly responsible for their current decline, it’s in essence placing a good part of the blame on Microsoft for Dell’s failing PC business. In fact, in an article done here in the Daily Flux back in early March called, “Microsoft Feels The Repercussion Of Declining PC Sales & Their Tablets Are Causing Near Equal Problems”, Samsung said nearly the same thing: “Samsung has abandoned their sales of Ativ Tab Windows RT tablet in Germany. Samsung attributes their leaving it behind due to Microsoft’s failure to explain adequately explain Windows RT to the public”

Michael Dell, Dell’s founder, can’t be happy.

The NY Post says that, “the 48-year-old executive of the struggling PC maker thinks Microsoft is the cause of some of the headwinds Dell is now facing.” Ironically though Microsoft infused Dell with a 2B investment to help keep them afloat recently when Dell announced their financial woes. Dell actually needs some 24B to cover their problems and is still scrounging for investors. So first Dell blames Microsoft and Windows 8 for their problems. Then Microsoft comes to the rescue with financial backing. And now Microsoft wants Dell to do what? Sell more of their problems? – Windows 8.

According to PC World Dell now plans to release tablets running Windows 8 and Window RT later this year.

Liliputing.com said it best. “If Windows RT is a failure, Dell apparently didn’t get the memo.”

This doesn’t sound to be a recipe for success, but that’s probably why Dell plans head for more diversified ground. “Dell has officially announced it is dipping its toes into the waters of Linux gaming, launching an Alienware-branded mini gaming PC running Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux.” That according to Bit-Tech.

It’s not over for Dell just yet, but if they continually rely on Microsoft and are in anyway taking orders from the Redmond corporation, it may certainly be a trying and even disastrous road ahead.

Problems increase for Google in the EU but this time Android is being targeted, with Nokia and Microsoft joining in on the attack.

Google has been vehemently targeted by European organizations over the last few years. In particular, the EU Data Protection Agency has led a group of European nations to fight again a number of Google’s business practices with CNIL leading the way, though no serious issues have truly been found with how Google is doing business in that part of the world. Now though, even some of Google’s closest business competition have also come together in attempt to put pressure on the world’s leading technology company (Google) and this time they targeted Google’s mobile bread-&-butter, Android.

An antitrust complaint has been filed in the EU by some big names, such as Microsoft, Nokia and even Oracle (which is still a bit puzzling). The filing is actually being led by Fairsearch Europe though.

Fairsearch.org promotes themselves as, “a group of businesses and organizations united to promote economic growth, innovation and choice across the Internet ecosystem by fostering and defending competition in on-line and mobile search.” The group claims that Google is “abusing its search monopoly to thwart competition” and they believe that action has to be taken now to “protect competition”.

Ironically in our most recent article, “Developing Mobile Consumables Specifically For Tablets May Be Key For Startups” we in fact just touched on how Google made the right decision to gain search superiority right from the start and as their core business. A move that has now put them in place to perhaps even gain major control over mobile search as well with their Android devices leading the way. The fact that Google is leading search is irritating for some, especially Google’s competitors. It also seems to be the crux of the issue now being raised by fairsearch.org and their supporters such as Microsoft and Nokia. It sort of goes without saying that the last two aforementioned companies would probably jump on any train to slay Google, but fairsearch.org puts forth their now most recent complaint against Google as such:

“Google’s Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, running in 70% of units shipped at the end of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. Google also dominates mobile search advertising with 96% of the market, according to eMarketer. The complaint says Google uses deceptive conduct to lockout competition in mobile. “Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,”

The remainder of this will have to come in the form of an opinionated view considering that these are merely accusation and not sustained as true in a court of law as of yet, if ever they will be.

It’s is true, yes, Google has somewhat monopolized the search industry and yes, it is true as well that they are in the position to do so in the mobile industry as well. To consider such a “Trojan Horse” though (if it be considered such) is a bit much and as if to almost to say, “Hey Google wait for us! We want your business too!” Reality though tells me though that search has never been better since Google arrived and they’ve been extremely fair in their practices with consumers. In fact, it’s almost as if their entire business model is to give away products and services for free (Google Docs, Gmail, you name it) and put the burden of the cost on the businesses that want to advertise, who also in turn make the money they seek to as well.

It’s somewhat apparent these days that the European regulators are being pushed by their business sectors to try and get Google to share a bit more of the huge profits Google is making (see EU Data Protection Agency and CNIL links above). In so doing it seems as though European regulators are willing to many a tactic to convict Google of some wrong doing in an attempt to reap a portion of their revenue. Even now to the point where Google is almost being promoted as the boogie-man of the technological world now. This is not to say Google is a “perfect” company, but it sure beats the charge-us-for-everything business model that Microsoft used to pin us with.

In conclusions on this topic for a moment, I’ll end by saying that it’s clearly evident that Google is not being attacked these days for invasive practices, fraudulent business practices, gathering information illegally, etc. In fact they’re in the forefront of helping others (see Google Crisis Reponse: Jakarta Receives Life Saving Data From Google During The Nation’s Worst Flooding Since 2007), giving up information to the government to help prevent crime while at the same time fighting for user privacy (see Google Fights The American Governments Desire For NSL Secrecy) and much more. Something in the realm of reality though tells me that Google is being attacked because they’re successful. Still, the fight must go on and we’ll look to see just how much pressure the EU can really apply in order to bring about the changes they want Google to make.

A quarter of the entire American population own 3 mobile devices and that tablet owning crowd seems to enjoy the entertainment high-life.

At one point in time Apple made computers (operating system included). Amazon sold books (and a bunch of other retail products). Google was just a search engine (and competed with Yahoo for top honors). Those are all days long gone and today each one of those companies has embarked on business ventures that cross the lines of one another. Amazon and Apple both make tablets. Apple and Google both make smartphones, Google and Amazon compete for enterprise level cloud computing sales, etc. The world has arrived where mega-technology corporations do it all.

The one thing though that all three of those mega-techs all have their hands in together in mobility, and rightfully so as there’s nothing with more bearing on the future of tech at the moment than who will guide consumer trends, and a lot of that seems to depend on who controls mobility.

Controlling mobility doesn’t necessarily entail being able to sell the most mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, Nexus devices, or any other smartphone, tablet, etc. Mobile devices come and go as they’re routinely replaced by newer technology that can come from any company. Controlling mobility does though require the ability to control where people go on the Internet, or at least how they get there. Google obviously got that right from the start through developing a superior search engine, and as such they have a strong grip on Internet advertising in general, and therefore probably will also have the lions share of the expected 4.5B in mobile advertising expected to be reached by 2018 (Forrester). Although Google has few real rivals in the “search” field to find great content, what of course is left after you manage people to use your service to find content, is the content itself that people reach. And there is the final frontier for any up and coming mobile startup.

To develop a thriving mobile startup surely entails knowing what people use their mobile devices for and recently Deloitte published a report that can further help interested software designers.

According to Deloitte 26% of Americans own a smartphone, tablet and laptop. Out of those three devices though 177% more Americans became tablets owners [presumably for the first time] over the last year. In addition, that tablet owning crowd streams movies 70% more often than non-tablet owners. In other words, tablet owners are those that typically have the expendable income to purchase and use services such as Netflix and the like. Therefore a software designer might seek a very tablet friendly app (versus a smartphone based app) if they were attempting to pioneer a mobile concept that may require a higher service fee or a higher end price tag for the app itself.

When it comes to reading books, the e-book is doing well. So well in fact that 50% of the people that typically purchase e-books buy more than they can even actually read. I suppose it never hurts to write a book that people will purchase but perhaps never even read.

More data can be gathered from the Deloitte “report” link above, but overall, it can be said that tablets are certainly a current wave for developers looking to cash in on mobile developments.

Will people really rush to purchase an antiquating iPhone when the new one is just around the corner?

The video above was not made by Apple and was only a potential concept video by one Federico Bianco. The video depicts what could be examples of many more refined iPhone feature that don’t currently exists but many people would like to see from Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6 and iOS 7. Before we get to that model though, there’s the sooner to come iPhone 5s that Apple’s attempting to push as an updated version of the nearly 1 year old, iPhone 5.

In March we discussed how “T-Mobile Upgrades To 4G/LTE And Gets A Contract With Apple”, that was the first good news for T-Mobile. Then later in the same month there was good news not for, but from T-Mobile as “T-Mobile Ends Customer Contract Lock-In”. As of last Friday, Apr 5, 2013, T-Mobile subscribers could begin preordering the iPhones handsets before they officially hit the stores in about a week or so. Whether or not people rush to grab a hold of the special iPhone deals though remains to be seen though (see CNet for more deal info).

According to a report from the Walls St Journal, “Apple Inc. plans to begin production of a refreshed iPhone similar in size and shape to its current one in the second quarter of the year”. A report from automobile.com also says that Apple may release the iPhone 6 with iOS 7 sometime this year, but also the iPhone 5s. Quote, “We have also heard an Asian website called MacFan, say that they iPhone 5S is set to come out in June”

Regardless of the exact timing the upcoming iPhone 6 release, if it’s truly any time within this year, it seems too close in timing for the iPhone 5s to really make any significant impact in the smartphone market. It may help a company such as T-Mobile out that is looking to have an in pouring of new customers ready to purchase a new iPhone in order to take advantage of their new deals, but for companies such as Verizon, AT&T and others, consumers that purchase the iPhone 5s will probably feel a bit duped when not long down the line, the latest Apple iPhone hits the shelf.