Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 447
08-01-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
The Dell finally tolls for Limerick | IDA 'guardedly optimistic' about Ireland's future | Jobs' absence takes shine from Macworld | CES hit by economic woes | Irish web surfers flock to Facebook
The Dell finally tolls for Limerick
After many months of rumours and worry about Dell's Limerick facility, it's been announced that the PC maker is to cut approximately 1,900 jobs. The cuts come as Dell moves its manufacturing function to its Polish facility in Lodz and to other third-party manufacturing partners. The redundancies will start in April 2009 with the full transfer of the manufacturing facilities to be completed by January 2010. The move is part of a USD3 billion cost-cutting initiative Dell announced last year, as it reviews its global supply chain. In all, Dell employs some 3,000 people at its Limerick base. The remaining 1,100 employees will continue to coordinate EMEA manufacturing, logistics and supply chain activities across a range of functions including product development, engineering, procurement and logistics. The company's Global Innovation Solutions Centre and EMEA Command Centre will remain in Limerick. Meanwhile, Dell will maintain its sales, marketing and support facility in Cherrywood, Dublin, where it employs 1,500 people. Dell has been based in Limerick since 1990. It is the country's largest exporter and accounts for around 5 percent of Irish GDP. To say the decision is a devastating blow for Limerick is an understatement; estimates suggest that as many as 10,000 ancillary jobs are indirectly linked to Dell's manufacturing facility in the county. Ireland's economy, already struggling, will no doubt feel the reverberations of the decision too. In an indication of just how important Dell is to the country, the Cabinet on Wednesday discussed the anticipated news, and both the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan and Defence Minister Willie O'Dea, a Limerick TD, flew to the US a couple of weeks ago to attempt to convince Michael Dell to maintain the facility in Limerick -- but to no avail. In a statement, Sean Corkery, vice president of Dell operations in EMEA, said: "We are proud of our 18-year tenure as a major manufacturer in Ireland. This is a difficult decision, but the right one for Dell to become even more competitive, and deliver greater value to customers in the region."
IDA 'guardedly optimistic' about Ireland's future
Despite a rather gloomy year for the global economy in 2008, IDA Ireland's end-of-year statement featured some positive news on the research, development and innovation front. During the year new investments in the area of RD&I reached EUR420 million. This figure included a EUR29 million R&D investment in Dublin by Business Objects, with the creation of 100 jobs; an expansion by Synopsis, a developer of software and intellectual property products, of its R&D operation in Dublin, creating 50 new software and electrical engineering positions; and global IT giant EMC's EUR20 million investment in R&D activities, with the creation of 20 jobs. IBM made no less than three major R&D announcements during the year. It established an Exascale Stream Computing Research Collaboratory in Dublin, creating 40 jobs; a new Green Data Centre and Global Supply Chain Hub; and Europe's first Cloud Computing Centre in Dublin, creating 21 jobs. Meanwhile, ON Semiconductor set up an R&D centre in Limerick, creating 49 highly skilled positions. IDA chief Barry O'Leary said he was happy with the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) that Ireland continues to attract: 130 FDI projects were won during the year. O'Leary, who identified areas such as clean tech and convergence as key for driving FDI to Ireland, went on to say that despite the continuing downturn, IDA Ireland remains "guardedly optimistic" of Ireland's ability to continue to attract "high-level" FDI during 2009 and beyond.
Jobs' absence takes shine from Macworld
Much of the buzz in the run-up to Macworld surrounded Steve Jobs' decision not to attend the event, which led to increased speculation about his health. On Monday he came clean about his recent weight loss, saying that he is suffering from a hormone imbalance but was receiving treatment. Crucially for Apple, he said that he would continue as CEO while receiving this treatment. Macworld sans Jobs' traditional keynote speech was expected to be a lacklustre affair with no big announcements from Apple; however, the firm surprised everyone on Tuesday with the news that it was dropping copy-protection from its tracks on iTunes, meaning they will be free from anti-copy software. For now, 8 million of Apple's 10 million songs will be in its new DRM-free format, iTunes Plus, with the remaining 2 million songs offered in iTunes Plus by the end of March. Apple also released a new tiered pricing structure for iTunes tracks to replace the set USD0.99-per-song pricing it's always used. The new pricing will be USD0.69, USD0.99 and USD1.29, with new releases costing USD1.29. In addition, Apple unveiled a 17-inch screen MacBook, with a built-in battery that offers 8 hours' usage. These announcements failed to rock Wall Street's world, however, and Apple's shares dropped by 2.3 percent in after-hours trading. Apple has traditionally caused much hype at Macworld, using it to launch the iPhone, for example. Its announcement that it will no longer attend the event is a blow to the organisers and to the Mac faithful, who look forward to a glimpse of Jobs at the event each year.
CES hit by economic woes
Another trade show that's looking like it will fizzle rather than sparkle this year is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The event, which has long been a must-attend for gadget lovers, seems to have been hit by recession woes and slowing consumer spending. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the event, the number of exhibitors at the CES this year is expected to drop to 2,700 from 3,000 last year and the total floor space will shrink to 158,000 square meters from 167,000 square metres. Some 130,000 attendees are expected at the show, which kicked off with a keynote speech from Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Wednesday, down from more than 141,000 attendees last year and a peak of 152,000 two years ago. The big guns, such as Intel, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, are all poised to launch their new gear later in the week, but there's been a distinct lack of hype surrounding any potential announcements. In general, industry watchers are expecting products that focus on developments in digital TVs, home networking, and mobile computing. Advancements in netbooks and touch-screen laptops are also on the cards, but the general consensus seems to be that no-one is set to unveil anything earth-shattering. I guess there's always next year.
Irish web surfers flock to Facebook
During the past year the number of Irish internet users registering on Facebook increased by over 200,000. Irish Facebook users now total 400,980, up from just under 200,000 in January 2008, and a mere 7,000 in January 2007, according to Mulley Communications. The interesting thing about Irish Facebook users is the age profile: 68.9 percent (275,660) are over the age of 25, while 148,320 are over 30 years of age. This trend reveals that social networking in Ireland is not just the domain of teenagers, who tend to dominate social networking site Bebo, for example. Of those that specified their gender, 218,240 are female, while 169,280 are male. Facebook hit the news over the past week when it began removing photographs of women nursing their babies. In an interview with the Times, Facebook defended its actions, saying: "Photos containing a fully exposed breast... violate [company policy against] obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit material and may be removed." Over 100,000 mothers disagree with that assertion and have joined an online Facebook petition entitled, "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" To be fair, you'd imagine there are probably much more "obscene" photos peppering Facebook.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 