Windows 8 can’t arrive soon enough. Dell is hurting in a lot of places after posting first quarter sales and earnings sharply below expectations Tuesday. But a big piece of the blame for Dell’s performance goes to its consumer business -where sales are down 12% year-over-year. And a chunk of the blame for those problems goes to Apple’s iPad. While Dell Chief Commercial Officer Steve Felice didn’t refer to the iPad by name on Tuesday’s conference call with investors, there can be no doubt whose tablet computer he was blaming for some of Dell’s woes: “We believe some of the tougher competitive environment can be attributed to channel inventory rebuilding, following the hard disk issues of the past two quarters. In addition, we are seeing ... Continue reading →

Dell posted first quarter sales, earnings, second quarter revenue guidance — you name it — well short of expectations Tuesday, sending shares of the Round Rock, Texas technology company were down more than 12% in after-hours trading. Hardest hit: Dell’s consumer business, where sales there were off 12%.Dell also posted year-over-year revenue declines from big businesses and government agencies. “Our sales execution was not up to our expectations,” Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said on a conference call with investors. The results are a setback for Chief Executive Michael Dell‘s effort to transform Dell from a manufacturer of desktop computers based on technology from Microsoft and Intel into a technology vendor able to sell more complex products built around Dell’s intellectual property. “This is ... Continue reading →

It’s been a good week for Mark Zuckerberg. On Monday he turned 28. Also on Monday, his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, graduated from medical school. And on Friday Facebook officially became one of the world’s most valuable companies. Time to party. While Facebook employees were sequestered away on the Menlo Park, Calif., company’s campus for an all-night-hack-a-thon that ended when Facebook’s shares began trading on the NASDAQ Friday morning, there appears to be an after-party scheduled at Zuckerberg’s five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom Palo Alto, Calif., home. A truck from Hartmann Studios was parked in the driveway of the home Friday. The thirty-year old company is known for staging high-end weddings, fundraisers, and corporate events. “Be Worry-free,” Hartmann’s site promises. “Hartmann Studios Rentals is your one-stop resource for ... Continue reading →

It’s been a good week for Mark Zuckerberg. On Monday he turned 28. Also on Monday, his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, graduated from medical school. And on Friday Facebook officially became one of the world’s most valuable companies. Time to party. While Facebook employees were sequestered away on the Menlo Park, Calif., company’s campus for an all-night-hack-a-thon that ended when Facebook’s shares began trading on the NASDAQ Friday morning, there appears to be an after-party scheduled at Zuckerberg’s five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom Palo Alto, Calif., home. A truck from Hartmann Studios was parked in the driveway of the home Friday. The thirty-year old company is known for staging high-end weddings, fundraisers, and corporate events. “Be Worry-free,” Hartmann’s site promises. “Hartmann Studios Rentals is your one-stop resource for ... Continue reading →

Thumbs up: Jason Sutherland and Larry Peddler know a marketing opportunity when they see one. Forget spending money to advertise in Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg‘s virtual world. Jason Sutherland and Larry Peddler are getting word out the old fasioned way: by standing outside the social network’s headquarters Friday morning with signs asking users of the social network to ‘like’ their company, Baynetwork. While the two have been shooed away by Facebook’s security, they’re definitely in the right place to get their message out. Reporters from national television outlets, newspapers, magazines, and wire services crowded into Facebook’s parking lot to cover Facebook’s first day of trading as a public company. Despite all the attention, Facebook had little to say to the media. Facebook employees in Priuses ... Continue reading →

It’s over. Facebook has won. The rest of us have lost. Just look at the numbers. Facebook raised $16 billion Thursday. No technology initial public offering has ever generated that kind of money: even Google’s much hyped offering in 2004 raised a relatively paltry $1.67 billion. Even before Facebook’s shares begin trading Friday, the social network is valued at $104 billion. A company with a little over 4,000 employees is now worth more than Bank Of America and Nike — combined. There can be no clearer sign of Facebook’s dominance than this, however: no one at Facebook will need to step outside the company’s massive Menlo Park, Calif., campus to celebrate. Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will even be able to ring the ... Continue reading →

Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang gave an audience at his company’s annual GPU Technology Conference a peek at what could be the next generation of gaming hardware Tuesday. It’s long. It’s skinny. It’s green. It’s nothing more than a cord linking a video game controller to a LG Cinema 3D Smart TV television set While Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices has cornered the market for the graphics processors that will power the next generation of gaming consoles, Huang has a bold plan that could — over the long term — hollow gaming consoles out and place the powerful graphics processors used to power immersive digital experiences in the cloud. On Tuesday, Huang introduced a new technology, dubbed GeForce GRID, that will be anchored by the ... Continue reading →