Another Bubble About to Burst

If you’re like us then you have lived through many bubbles in the tech world. The latest bubble is clearly in the Smartphone world and that one may be about to burst, Here’s a report from Reuters:

Smartphone sales are still growing, and market tracker IDC predicts annual shipments will top 1.5 billion by 2017, up from 917 million this year - but the blistering growth of the past five years is slowing.

IDC sees sales increasing by around 15 percent this year in mature markets such as the United States, down from 20.6 percent last year, and this will slow further to just 4.6 percent by 2017. In emerging markets - China accounts for around a third of global demand - growth will slow to 12 percent this year from more than 35 percent.

Omoto reckons Panasonic could boost its share of the chip mounting market by wooing the many smaller Chinese mobile phone makers that are gaining ground on Apple. The U.S. firm's Greater China sales slumped 43 percent in April-June from the previous quarter. Beyond that, Omoto, whose operating margins have slipped to 8 percent from 10 percent, is looking to reduce his smartphone related business to a quarter from 30 percent by selling more of his robots to the automaking industry.

The Imperial Presidency

The current regime in Washington, DC continues to play favorites in the economy. Just like their efforts to undermine (pun intended) the entire coal industry and pour billions of dollars into unproven, experimental “green” projects, they are now helping their perceived friends in technology. Despite an order from U.S. International Trade Commission that Apple be banned from selling certain older iPhones and iPads the President has taken it on himself to help the iFruit company.

Styled a "veto," the move is not unheard of, but it is rare. The last time a presidential veto of a product ban was invoked was 1987, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In a June 4 ruling, the commission banned the importation into the U.S. of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G distributed by AT&T. The move effectively banned the sale of those items in the U.S. that were designed to work with AT&T service, Yahoo News has reported.

Music Streaming

After years of disappointment, things are looking up for the music industry, at least in terms of streaming music services.

According to new research from Parks Associates, the number of users of major music streaming services (such as Pandora or Spotify) has increased by more than 200% since 2011. What’s more, the growth in users willing to pay for those services has increased more than 80%.

“One of the things we’ve noticed is these [streaming companies’] business models have changed, and as they’ve moved to a ‘freemium’-type model, adoption has gone up,” Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates, tells Marketing Daily. “As the penetration of mobile devices has increased, consumers have used their smartphones and tablets to access those services, which has also spread awareness.”

According to Parks, worldwide unit sales of network-capable audio products has increased 170% to more than 24 million in 2012. Of those who own connected music systems, 14% have paid for music services, compared to 6% of households without connected music systems. By the year 2017, Parks predicts the number of connected audiences will double, and the number of people using the services will increase to 15 million worldwide.

As use of music streaming services grows, it’s likely there will be more partnerships to make them available on more platforms, Sappington says. Recent partnerships have included Google’s inclusion of Pandora on its new Chromecast product and Rdio’s partnership to stream Live Nation events.

“A device without services to work on it isn’t [very useful],” Sappington says. “These partnerships have made a lot of sense to both hardware manufacturers and the services.”

In fact, the one service that may be hurt the most by the growth in streaming is the one that revolutionized the music industry: iTunes. Because it’s so closely tied with Apple’s iOS operating system, the proliferation of devices on other platforms could cut into iTunes’ growth, Sappington says. “As [Android-based] systems increase in penetration, the use of iTunes might be less,” he says.

MSFT SkyDrive Blunder

You would think that MSFT would have the foresight to do something as basic as check on the availability of a trademarked name before they spend massive bucks creating, and naming, something like SkyDrive. But no, they didn’t and it is going to cost them big.

Personally, I think MSFT is just a massive, overly arrogant company that doesn’t care at all about smaller companies. They just plan on using their size and power to bully everyone around. That may have worked 10 years ago but no more. In today’s market even little companies have real power. It’s a wonderful new world!

August 3, 1981

It's August 3rd again. Where were you in 1981? I'm sure all of my ATC friends remember well.... very well

If you're a youngster and don't remember that momentous date, it's the day that the PATCO union decided to go on strike against the federal government. A few days later the greatest President of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan, fired them all. 

Back then I was a controller and I was deeply involved. All things worked out well in the end and I retired after 36 years of combined military and FAA service.

One thing I will never forget is what happened on August 3rd, 1981.

New Epson Scanner

Epson recently announced the expansion of its lineup of professional-grade scanning solutions with the introduction of the WorkForce DS-510 color document scanner. The new scanner offers a range of features to increase efficiency, including scan-to-cloud capabilities with an intuitive one-touch button, fast scan speeds and innovative, advanced color and image adjustment capabilities..

Compact enough to fit into any office environment, the WorkForce DS-510 offers a robust set of features, including Epson Document Capture Pro, OCR software, and TWAIN and ISIS drivers for ultimate compatibility with third-party programs. Overall, the scanner provides the image quality and flexibility businesses require to take document processing and management to the next level.

Free Version Of System Mechanic

iolo has released a Free version of System Mechanic which has seven of their most essential tools.

The free version includes these tools:

1. Registry Tuner
2. Startup Optimizer
3. RAM Leak Repair
4. Disk Defragmenter
5. Junk File Cleanup
6. Internet Repair
7. Program Link Repair

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Below is a link to SM free.

http://www.iolo.com/promo/smfree/?utm_source=Computer chronicles_medium=link_content=none_campaign=pr

We have always been fans of System Mechanic and encourage everyone to try it out.