Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::How Apple's growth is hurting companies::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320794_temp.png" border="0" align="left" /></div>Apple is set to report another record quarterly profit on Tuesday, continuing the relentless string of results that's made it the world's most valuable company. Those profits don't come out of thin air: A range of businesses -- from the company's wireless carrier friends to its PC-making foes -- are seeing their profits melt away and flow to Apple's bottom line.Apple's success is good for the US economy, and some businesses, like software developers and memory-chip makers, have benefited from the disruption Apple is causing. But its enormous gains have resulted in others' pains, sometimes in unexpected places.* AT&T Inc, for instance, took a chance on Apple's unproven phone in 2007, but the company might be regretting that decision. Since it became the first US phone company to carry the iPhone, its stock is down 25 percent. Apple's is up 415 percent.* Best Buy has sold Apple products off and on since the late 1990s, but analysts now see Apple as a major threat to the US' only remaining national big-box electronics chain.* Worst off, of course, are rival phone makers. Apple has just 8 percent of the global phone market, but makes about 80 percent of the industry's operating profits.Wall Street analysts expect Apple Inc. to post a profit of $9.2 billion for the January to March quarter when it reports on Tuesday. That's roughly in line with the profit expected from the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp.The majority of the profit will come from iPhone sales, especially now that three of the four national US wireless carriers -- AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon- sell the phone.But, for a phone company, selling an iPhone is a bit of a gamble. The company pays Apple an average of $659 for iPhones and then sells them to consumers for between $50 and $200.The phone companies count on making their money back, and more, in monthly service fees over the life of a two-year contract. Each iPhone comes with a data plan that adds at least $30 to a consumer's monthly bill. At AT&T, the average iPhone user pays more than $100 per month.It turns out, however, that some of the added income wireless carriers get from data plans is just compensating for a drop in what they're able to charge for calling minutes. The money is also eaten up by the cost of network upgrades to support all the data traffic -- the emails, photos andYouTube videos iPhone users consume."The primary beneficiary of the growth in wireless data has been one company - Apple," saysWilliam Power, an analyst with R.W. Baird & Co.Despite the smartphone boom created by Apple's iPhone, "free cash flow," or the cash left over every quarter after expenses and capital spending, hasn't grown at the major U.S. wireless companies since 2007, according to Power's calculations.In the same period, Apple's free cash flow has grown more than sixfold, to over $40 billion last year.

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::::TCS 'refuses' to follow Infosys, to give increments::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320081_temp.png" border="0" width="200" height="105" align="left" /></div>India's largest technology outsourcing services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) laid to rest nagging concerns around industry growth by meeting earnings expectations in the March quarter, backed further by a confident commentary from the management on growth outlook. In stark contrast to cautious and diffident commentary from peer Infosys, TCS management said it is confident of growing faster than the industry."It is a normal year," said chief executive N Chandrasekaran."The order book is very healthy and has been continuously improving. We see very good momentum." Net profit in the fourth quarter grew 1.6% from preceding three months to . 2,932 crore on the back of revenues of Rs 13,259 crore.Infosys to cut employees' variable pay | Infosys freezes salary increments TCS, which crossed $10billion in revenues in fiscal 2012, does not give growth forecast. Infosys's disappointing growth and tepid forecast had raised concerns about the sector's growth prospects. But so far software industry body, which has projected an 11-14 % growth for the sector, has maintained its forecasts. Justifying the stance, Nasscom president Som Mittal said US, the biggest buyer of Indian ITservices, was seeing a recovery and uncertainty in Europe was dissipating. Global-head of human resources , Ajoy Mukherjee, said employees would receive hundred percent of their variable pay for the fourth quarter. TCS also intends to hand out an average of 6-8 % pay hike for its offshore employees and 4% foronshore employees. Rival Infosys froze pay hikes for the year and is paying out only 70% of variable pay on an average for entry-mid level employees. "It has been a good year for us, and the employees have contributed to it. If it (pay hike) is going to add pressure on our profit margins, we will deal with it," Chandrasekaran told analysts in the earnings call. Analysts were upbeat about the sector following TCS earnings. "TCS' performance is one step to clearing concerns around any potential slowdown for the industry. It shows the issues facing Infosys are more company-specific," said an analyst with a foreign brokerage. Ahead of the earnings announcement, TCS shares fell 2.8% on BSE to close at Rs 1,059.25 on Monday, when benchmark Sensex ended 1.6% lower. However, along the lines of Infosys commentary, TCS' saw a flattish growth in financial services but Chandrasekaran said he did not see any cause for worry and there have been no project cancellations or ramp downs. Infosys had blamed a few client specific issues for its dismal performance. TCS has signed three large outsourcing contracts from financial services clients. The IT firm intends to hire around 50,000 employees during FY13 against 70,000 gross hire in fiscal 2012.

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::::iPad popularity sends laptop component makers to cloud::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320187_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />The world's two biggest laptop assemblers are seeking shelter in the cloud as Apple Inc's iPad threatens the future of personal computers.  Quanta Computer Inc and Compal Electronics Inc, the Taiwanese companies that together make half of all portable computers, are turning to servers and the tablets that access them.  Revenue from building notebooks for clients such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc at Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Quanta fell last year for the first time since the company listed in 1999 as the US PC market declined for the first time in a decade.  Sales of the iPad, cheaper and lighter than most laptops, have forced a slowdown in the $233 billion PC market, pushing the assemblers to chase orders from Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc for servers and tablets.  The Taiwanese companies are taking a cue from their customers. Dell is cutting its reliance on PCs and HP considered spinning off the business, seven years after International Business Machines Corp ( IBM) exited the market.  "The golden era for notebooks is over," said Arthur Liao, an analyst at Fubon Financial Holding Co in Taipei, who rates Quanta an add and has no rating on Compal. "Quanta and Compal need to diversify into cloud computing devices like tablets and servers if they want to survive and grow."  The success of iPads and other tablets has accelerated the growth of the cloud. Unlike PCs, tablets don't store reams of data, but rather rely on frequent access to remote servers to run their applications, stream videos and music, and tap into all manner of other data.  Cloud computing  Sales at Quanta, the world's biggest laptop assembler, from cloud-computing products will climb 80 per cent this year as Google and Amazon boost orders, said Kirk Yang, an analyst with Barclays Plc. Compal last year more than doubled the proportion of its revenue from devices other than notebooks, said Jimmy Chen, an analyst with Masterlink Securities Corp in Taipei.  Sales of cloud-computing products, including servers, tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Internet routers, at Quanta will account for 13.4 per cent of revenue this year from 8.7 per cent last year, Yang said. Analysts estimate revenue growth will be 9 per cent this year after dropping 1.3 per cent last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Quanta Chief Financial Officer and spokesman Elton Yang declined an interview request.  Facebook, Twitter  "Quanta and Compal recognized a while ago that notebook growth is slowing and they needed to look for new products," said Chen, who rates both companies hold and estimates that combined they made about half the world's laptops in the past decade. "Moving into cloud devices is new and risky territory for them, but it's a move they need to make."  Quanta's shares have climbed 20 per cent this year in Taipei and Compal's have added 8.6 per cent, compared with a 7.8 per cent advance in the benchmark Taiex index.  With social networking sites such as Facebook Inc, Google and Twitter Inc gaining in popularity and more people using the Internet to buy and store music and data, demand for servers continues to climb.  That same can't be said for PCs. Global computer shipments climbed 0.5 per cent last year to 353 million units, trailing the 7 per cent rise in sales volume for servers, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Significantly, server revenue gained even higher, at 7.9 per cent, Gartner said, indicating average prices increased during the year. 

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::::Any of top 3 execs can fit into my boots, says HCL Tech CEO::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320553_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />India's fourth-largest information technology services firm HCL Technologies has put in place - through a board committee - a succession plan for its top 30 managers including its chief executive and president Vineet Nayar.  Nayar, 50, said that any of the three current top leaders, who manage almost 30% business each for HCL Technolgies, can fit into his boots. "You have seen them on the stage," Nayar said responding to a question about who can be the No. 2 of HCL Technologies.  He was referring to business unit heads who accompany him during earnings announcements every quarter. This is first time that Nayar has openly discussed succession at the helm. "Among the three of them, they manage almost 30% business each for our company," Nayar said. "Any of the three of can manage and fit into my boots, at anytime."  The top three leaders are Rahul Singh, president, financial services & business services, Anant Gupta who is the president for infrastructure services division, and Steve Cardell, the earlier chief executive of Axon and who is now the president of enterprise application services for the Noida-based firm. Nayar, who was elevated as the CEO of HCL Technologies in 2007, has taken the company from $700 million to $4 billion in revenues and an employee base of 85,000 engineers. "We take succession planning very seriously in the company. It's because the bus can hit anybody," Nayar said. "To run a company where the number of shareholders is so high, one has to have a succession plan in place." At Bangalore-based peer Infosys, founders have been taking turns filling up the corner office while third largest outsourcing services provider Wipro had its share of trouble with a co-chief executive model, which it eventually gave up.  According to Gita Dang, founder director, Talent Advisory Services, aDelhi based executive search firm, "when a company has grown by six fold (like HCL has under Nayar's watch) there's enough scale for at least six to seven leaders to emerge." K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners International, a search firm says that the ability of a company to plan a succession depends on how big a canvass it has. "That's why in diversified companies it is a lot easier than for technology services companies where there are only two functional streams-sales and delivery." "It was done and decided three years ago. HCL Technologies has a Board committee which only thinks of succession planning at all times," Nayar said.  Rahul Singh, who joined HCL in 2010 now manages a $1-billion financial services piece besides restructuring the $250-million BPO business. Gupta, a telecom engineer is the oldest of the three top leaders with 19 years in HCL.  His business unit, infrastructure business , brings in about $1 billion. Gupta also heads the Europe business, that contributes $1 billion to the company. Many regard his portfolio as No 2 after the CEO. 

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::::IBM, Infy top workplaces for graduates::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320266_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />IBM and Infosys have been chosen as the most preferred employers by both engineering (BE/BTech) as well as non-engineering graduate (B.Sc /BBA, BA, BCA) students, according to a survey. Both these companies have topped the employer preference charts for a second year in a row as per a survey conducted by First Naukri.com. The survey is based on interview of some 2000+ engineering and non-engineering graduate students.  Among non-engineering graduates, Infosys andWipro topped the chart of preferred companies with over 41% and 39% students opting for the same as their favoured employer. IBM takes the third slot while TCS is ranked at the fifth position.  In case of engineering students, over 43% of them ranked IBM as their most preferred employer. Infosys and TCS share the second and third position respectively followed by Wipro andAccenture.  The survey also asked students on what basis do they decide to appear for a company during placements. 33% respondents ranked 'job profile' in the company as their first choice. 27% said 'growth prospect' within the company and another 27% said 'brand image' of the company is the key deciding factor.  When asked about the biggest influencer during campus interviews, 31% respondents said seniors (alumni). Approximately 23% of them said parents and 19% opted for batch mates.  Commenting on the findings of the survey Deepali Singh, Business Head, Firstnaukri.com said "Defence has emerged as a preferred sector among engineers from non-IT stream with most of them looking at DRDO as the first option.  This shows a tilt towards working in government and PSU's sectors have started getting traction. Also, it is interesting to note that seniors and parents play a key role in influencing decision during campus interviews." 

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::::How Google Searches the Entire Web in Half a Second::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335231597_temp.jpg" border="0" width="350" height="200" align="left" /></div>It only takes half a second for Google to return a search based on keywords you type in, but there’s a whole lot more happening behind the scenes to give you the results you need. Google on Monday launched a video that explains the science behind how the massive search engine actually works. Matt Cutts, software engineer head of Google’s webspam team, details in a YouTube video how the search engine giant thoroughly scours the web on a daily basis to provide the most up-to-date results to users. “There are three things you need to do to be the best search engine in the world. First, you need to crawl the web comprehensively and deeply, then you want to rank or serve those pages and return the most relevant ones first,” Cutts said. Although Google crawls the web on a daily basis, that wasn’t always the case. “We used to crawl for 30 days… and then index for about a week and push that data out — and that would take about a week,” Cutts said. “Sometimes you would hit a data center with new data and sometimes you would hit a data center with old data.” But this method wasn’t optimized since a lot of the information would be out of date. In 2003, Google switched to crawling a significant amount of the Internet each day. By scouring the web each day for new content, it incrementally updated its index. “We have gotten even better over time, and at this point, we can keep it very fresh,” Cutts said. To do so, page rank is the key deciding factor as to how likely you are to see a link: “We basically take page rank as the primary determinant and the more page rank you have — that is, the more people that link to you and the more reputable those people are — the more likely it is that we will discover your page relatively early in the crawl,” Cutts said. Google also places a lot of emphasis on word order. For example, a search for pop singer “Katy Perry” will look for results with those two words next to each other, rather than having “Katy” and the word “Perry” show up in different parts of the content. Finding the right balance between word proximity, page reputation and links pointing to it is the key. “That’s kind of the secret sauce,” Cutt added. Google then sends that query out to hundreds of different machines all at once, which look through their fraction of the web that has been indexed to find the best match. “We say, ‘what’s the best page that matches this query across our entire index?” Cutts said. “We take that page and we try to show it with a useful snippet, so we show the keywords in the context of the document and get it all back in under half a second.” How do you think companies can use this information to better show up in Google search results? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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::::7 Tips for Women in the Tech Industry::::

<img src="http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Business-Woman-600.jpg" border="0" alt="Businesswoman at her desk using a digital tablet" width="275" align="left" />Being a female entrepreneur in the male-dominated tech industry is challenging, and comes with a distinct set of barriers. Thankfully, there are several female-led organizations that are working to bring more women into the tech fold.  I asked a panel of successful young female entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs, what challenges women in tech face, and what could help eliminate some of those barriers? Here’s what they shared. <h2>1. Women’s Organizations Help</h2> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1063101" src="http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lisa.jpg" border="0" title="lisa" width="140" height="140" /> While women tend to be more relationship-oriented in general, I’ve found that networking our way into the inner circle of the tech world is not as easy for us. There are probably a number of reasons for this, but I believe organizations like Women 2.0 and Women in Technology will be instrumental in bridging that gap in the coming years.  - Lisa Nicole Bell, Inspired Life Media Group <h2>2. Sharing is Key</h2> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1063095" src="http://6.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Amanda.jpg" border="0" title="Amanda" width="140" height="140" />Whether a woman is contemplating launching her first startup or simply considering registering for a course that will teach her to code, it’s so important that she share this with friends and colleagues. When these conversations between women don’t take place, the circle of women in tech grows at a much slower rate. Outside the tech world, there’s this perception that “only men are doing it.” But if we all talked about it more, I think that would give more women permission to dive in.  - Amanda Aitken, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design <h2>3. See the Glass as Half Full</h2> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1063107" src="http://7.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Thursday.jpg" border="0" title="Thursday" width="140" height="140" /> Despite the fact that we tell girls and women that any path is possible, there are still strong gender roles that reinforce the idea that women aren’t as good at STEM skills. The most important step we can take is to integrate these skills in the classroom as early as possible by showcasing successful female tech entrepreneurs. We also need to quit treating women in tech as a rarity, when numbers have grown dramatically. We’re creating something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we need to step back from that.   - Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting <h2>4. Develop Access to Capital</h2> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1063097" src="http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/doreen.jpg" border="0" title="doreen" width="140" height="140" /> Women founders can find it more difficult to raise funding for their businesses. The statistics show that less than 20 percent of female-led ventures get funding, which is much lower than the statistics for men. That said, there are several great organizations trying to help women reach their funding goals, including Women 2.0, Astia, and others. We need to support such groups.  - Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc. <h2>5. Be Yourself</h2> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1063099" src="http://7.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Lauren.jpg" border="0" title="Lauren" width="140" height="140" /> When I was starting TalentEgg, not only was I a woman in the tech industry, but I was also very young — a 24-year-old who looked like I was only 15. Thankfully, I learned early on that my biggest strength was my ability to be myself. I didn’t pretend to be older than I was, or have more experience than I had. I also didn’t try to emulate men in my industry. I was just me, and I never listened to any commentary regarding the barriers that I was supposedly facing by being a young woman in technology. 

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