IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 19 October
19-10-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Ireland improves broadband ranking | Apple profits eclipse IBM earnings
The Irish Times reports that Ireland has improved the quality of its broadband services, ranking ahead of Britain, the US and Germany in a new global study. Ireland ranked 13th out of 72 countries, tied with Finland and up from 14th place in 2009. Top of the list was South Korea. The UK and Germany were 18th in the table, while the US and France both ranked 15th. In terms of mobile broadband, the State is in 22nd place in terms of service quality. The study was carried out by Said Business School in Oxford University and commissioned by Cisco. The quality of broadband services was evaluated through a series of tests measuring download throughput, upload throughput, and latency capabilities of a connection.
The paper also says that Danuta Gray is to resign as chief executive of O2 Ireland next month, after nine years on the job. She will be replaced by O2 UK's consumer sales director, Stephen Shurrock. Gray will remain as non-executive chairwoman of Telefonica O2 Ireland, but will leave the board of Telefonica Europe at the end of November. She is to take on an advisory role within Telefonica Europe.
The Irish Independent notes that it has launched an iPad app that allows the newspaper to be read as it appears in print. The app will allow subscribers to download the eReader edition of the paper, which contains all Irish news sections that are in the paper's print edition. The app is free to download, but readers must pay for a subscription to the ePaper to read content.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has posted a 70 percent surge in quarterly earnings, eclipsing the profit reported by IBM. Apple reported a profit of USD4.31 billion in the September quarter, while IBM had earnings in the same period of USD3.59 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. Apple's results make it the second-most profitable US tech firm after Microsoft. Apple's quarterly revenues also closed in on IBM's. Apple generated USD20.3 billion, up 67 percent from a year ago, although sales of its iPad tablet were lower than some analysts had expected. IBM's revenues were USD24.3 billion, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
The paper also says that Ray Ozzie, the executive who became Microsoft's top technical visionary after the retirement of co-founder Bill Gates, plans to leave the software firm. In an email sent to employees, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said Ozzie plans to step down from his position as chief software architect. He will focus on Microsoft's investments in the field of entertainment during a transition period, and leave the company in the coming months. Ozzie "has no plans at this time" for another job, Ballmer wrote. The email provided no explanation for Ozzie's departure.
The Financial Times says that Facebook is fending off another privacy outcry, after it admitted that some of its most popular third-party games and applications breached its data protection rules. Facebook said that some of the most popular games on its site, including FarmVille and Texas Hold 'Em Poker, were passing on to advertisers a string of numbers and letters that act as each user's identification on the site. This information is essential to the operation of social games but could also be used to determine the real names of Facebook users. Depending on a user's privacy settings, more personal details could be gleaned and combined with other data collected about their browsing habits. The social networking site said it would make technical changes to its platform to improve data security.
The paper also notes that worldwide corporate IT spending will increase by 3.1 percent to USD2,500 billion next year, fuelled by strong growth in emerging economies. This will offset lacklustre spending in more developed nations, according to IT consultancy Gartner. In 2010, global corporate IT spending is on track to reach USD2,400 billion, a 2.4 percent rise over 2009, Gartner said, but warned that the next five years will represent "a period of timid and at times lacklustre growth with spending increasing to just USD2,800 billion in 2014."
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