News you may have missed

Data privacy still a hot topic

Privacy and cyberspying continued to dominate headlines over the holidays. Apple denied reports that it has been working with the NSA to allow “backdoor” access to iPhones, insisting it was unaware of the NSA program targeting its devices. More Snowden leaks meanwhile suggest that the NSA is trying to build a quantum computer capable of breaking most types of encryption in use today.

Representatives of some major tech US companies meanwhile went on the record detailing the fallout they have felt from the revelations of NSA spying, ranging from lost international business to fears that their own government may be threatening the survival of the internet as we know it.

On the corporate front, popular photo messaging application Snapchat was left red-faced after hackers stole and published online a database of 4.6 million usernames and numbers - with the last two digits of the phone numbers censored - in a stunt they said was designed to “raise public awareness on how reckless many internet companies are with user information”.

Tough times for smartphone makers

Despite the increase in smartphone adoption, the news has not been all good for vendors. Apple and China Mobile finally worked out a long-awaited deal for the world’s largest mobile operator by subscribers to carry the iPhone, but initial pre-order figures disappointed the market.

Market leader Samsung warned it expects its weakest smartphone profit growth this year since 2007, with analysts attributing the forecast in part to growing competition from Apple in the huge Chinese market. Samsung also has to contend with lower margins - while Gartner expects 1.1 billion Android devices to be sold in 2014, the firm notes that smartphone market growth is inevitably shifting to emerging markets.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, which has to deal with the above plus the fact the smartphone market is increasingly a two-horse race between Samsung and Apple, meanwhile reported a net profit of about $11.2 million (TW$300 million) for the fourth quarter - less than half of the TW$721 million analysts had been predicting.

PC makers react to a shrinking market

Both Gartner and IDC have estimated that PC shipments had their steepest decline ever in 2013.

Vendors may be seeing the writing on the wall. HP announced plans to lay off 34,000 employees by the end of the year - 5000 more than expected - as the company continues to struggle with lagging PC sales and intense competition.

Rumours have meanwhile been circulating that LG is considering exiting or preparing to exit the traditional PC business due to shrinking sales, and is due to make an announcement soon. While no such announcement has come yet, the company has just announced a convertible Windows PC/tablet and a lightweight laptop, perhaps hinting at its new direction.

HP and China’s Lenovo have meanwhile both announced plans to sell Android-based PC desktops. HP is aiming its products at businesses while Lenovo is targeting consumers, but both debuts suggest PC makers could be taking an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ mentality.

IT market turnaround

Last year was a lean one for the overall IT market, as enterprise and consumer buyers continued to focus on controlling costs. Analysts are a little more optimistic about the prospects for the year ahead, but the signals are mixed.

Gartner projected that global spending on ICT products and services will grow 3.1% this year to about $4.3 trillion (US$3.8 trillion), up from just 0.4% in 2013. But this forecast still represents an 0.5 percentage point reduction to the firm’s previous 2014 growth forecast. The firm blames the reduced forecast on an anticipated reduction in spending on telecom services for the year.

Forrester Research is meanwhile predicting a 6.2% increase in IT spending for the year to US$2.2 trillion (Forrester’s forecast excludes telecom service revenue). This compares to the firm’s estimate of a 1.6% increase in IT spending for 2013. Software is expected to dominate IT spending in 2014, accounting for US$442 billion of the total.

Miscellaneous news

The quiet period didn’t stop M&A activity altogether. Oracle has announced a deal to acquire B2C marketing software vendor Responsys for around $1.68 billion (US$1.5 billion) to help it take on rivals including Salesfore.com and Microsoft. And Indian Android app performance monitoring tool start-up Little Eye Labs has confirmed it has been acquired by Facebook, in a deal thought to be worth between $10 million and $15 million.

IBM continues to find new uses for its Jeopardy-winning Watson supercomputer, with Singapore-based bank DBS Group Holdings planning to use the system to help its advisors guide wealthy customers through financial decisions.

On the stranger side, high-profile technology investor Tim Draper detailed his proposition to turn tech hub Silicon Valley into a separate US state, by dividing California into six new states.

Image courtesy of Jon S under CC