The technology business week: Irish SMEs on lacking website, Microsoft restructures


15 Jul 2013

A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week.

Irish SMEs attribute lack of website to lack of funds, time, knowledge – survey

Some 73pc of Irish SMEs without a website worry they are losing potential business and are aware their competitors are already online, a survey by domain name registrar Register365 suggests.  

More than half of those SMEs said the reason they don’t have a website is because they lack the time, funds or knowledge to get one up and running, with 61pc of them unaware it can cost fewer than €100 a year to build and host their own website.

Of those SMEs who do have a website, 89pc indicated that they spend no more than 10 hours a week looking after their site, and most maintain it themselves. Only 19pc outsource that job to a professional.

Microsoft restructure: will we see a more nimble, decisive and motivated IT giant?

Microsoft is embarking on the most ambitious reorganisation in its 37-year history; restructuring the company into 12 distinct groups with a clearer product strategy.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft has had change beyond its original vision of putting a PC on every desk to supporting the latest shift in personal technology to encompass the growth of broadband, the mobile internet and devices like smartphones and tablets.

In an email to staff under the heading ‘One Strategy, One Microsoft’, Ballmer said the aim is to be one company with one strategy. “We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands.”

Apple conspired to raise e-book prices, judge rules

Consumer tech giant Apple conspired with major book publishers to raise the price of e-books in connection with the launch of its iPad tablet computer in 2010, in violation of antitrust law, a Manhattan federal district judge has ruled.

US District Judge Denise Cote also called for a trial on damages.

The US Department of Justice had claimed the conspiracy intended to knock Amazon.com’s dominance of the e-books market.

Only Apple went to a non-jury trial, which ended on 20 June. The publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, Simon & Schuster and Penguin – settled with the US government and the states, Reuters reported.

Cloud events player Cvent files for US$100m IPO

Cloud-based enterprise event management platform Cvent has filed for an IPO that could net the company US$100m.

In the filing, the company said it is targeting the events management software market that Frost & Sullivan estimates to be worth US$22bn in 2012.

The company said its revenues at the end of 2012 totalled US$83.5m, up 37pc on the previous year. The company yielded a profit of US$4.3m.

Cvent plans to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘CVT’.

EMC acquires security firm Aveksa

Data storage firm EMC has acquired Aveksa Inc, a security company that specialises in identity and access management (IAM), for an undisclosed sum.

Aveksa is now operating within EMC’s RSA security division as part of its Identity Trust Management product group.

The deal is expected to help RSA deliver solutions to identity and access management challenges across the enterprise, cloud and mobile.

Apple’s iOS catching up with Google’s Android OS in US smartphone sales

Apple iPhone sales grew 3.5pc in the three months ending May 2013, while Android-based smartphone sales were static at around 0.1pc, the latest quarterly analysis from Kantar Worldpanel reveals.

Google’s Android operating system still remains the market leader, with 52pc marketshare, followed by Apple’s iOS, at 41.9pc.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system is in third place, with 4.6pc of sales, up 0.9pc on last year.

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