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D-Link’s Pitch: We’re Cheaper Than Cisco
D-Link Systems Inc. wants to sell more to businesses that have tighter purse strings these days.The Fountain Valley-based maker of networking gear, part of Taiwan's D-Link Corp., is pitching its routers and other products as a cheaper way for budget-conscious businesses to expand their networks.The company's selling point: We're cheaper than Cisco.D-Link's less expensive prices could appeal to small and midsize companies that have seen their businesses slow this year, crimping their ability to spend on technology.They also appeal to resellers-tech shops that sell and install computer gear at businesses-which keep more of the profits on D-Link sales.Targeting businesses is a bit of a switch for D-Link, which is better known for selling to consumers and home-based businesses."We have two different models we are running now, two different faces," Chief Executive Steven Joe said. "D-Link is well known in the consumer sector, which we started here in Fountain Valley a dozen years ago. But we've actually been involved hi the business sector for 22 years."D-Link's Taiwanese parent got its start selling to businesses through resellers, according to Joe.The Business Journal estimates D-Link's local operation, which has some 300 workers, sees about $1 billion in sales a year.The bulk of D-Link's U.S. revenue comes from switches, routers, modems and network adapter cards sold at electronics stores and by online retailers.Products aimed more squarely at businesses -- network switches, extra data storage and security cameras -- are a small, growing part of D-Link's sales, Joe said.The company's main competitor for consumers is Jjvine-based Cisco-Linksys LLC, an independently run division of Cisco Systems Inc. that sells through electronics retailers.For sales to smaller businesses, D-Link also competes with Linksys but more so with Cisco itself, as well as with Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp."As for the technology, we've been working on it to meet business...
Video-Game Sales Slide, But Analysts Optimistic
Sales of the Nintendo Wii game console rose 37 percent in September, but the rest of the industry saw losses. It was the first time in more than two years that the market for consoles and games has seen an overall decline.In all, consumers purchased 687,000 Wii consoles, according to the NPD Group. That marks an increase from 501,000 in September 2007. But the industry's total sales fell seven percent to $1.27 billion."Last September, the industry saw the release of Halo 3, so that's probably affecting the numbers," said Michael Cai, a video-game analyst at Parks Associates. The Microsoft blockbuster sold 3.3. million titles, which boosted overall industry sales 75 percent for September 2007, according to NPD Group."With just one month of data it's difficult to generalize whether this is going to be a downward trend or not," Cai said. "Even a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of decline. So it's difficult to make a conclusion from one month of data."Measuring Next-Gen SuccessIndeed, despite the down numbers and the economic uncertainties, NPD reports that the health of the video-game industry is strong. For example, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Microsoft's Xbox 360, September's hottest title, sold 610,000 units.Nintendo is readying for the holiday season, the most important time of the year for the video-game industry, by upping its shipment volume 50 percent in the fourth quarter. The company hopes to avoid lost sales from any potential shortages. Nintendo has no plans to cut the Wii's already market-low $249 price for the holidays, according to the company.It's a different story for Microsoft. Redmond slashed the price of the the Xbox 360 Arcade, its low-end model, from $279.99 to $199.99 in September. The Xbox 360 is still selling well, pushing out 347,200 units in September to secure second place...
Safely Saving Energy in Today’s Data Center
Managers of data centers are finding themselves increasingly under pressure to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities. Existing data centers present the greatest challenge because of their older infrastructure and restrictions on downtime to make changes. However, there are proven strategies that can enable a data center to increase energy efficiency without jeopardizing availability.Before considering those options, it's important to define the kind of data center that might benefit from those measures. These are data centers in which infrastructure availability meets the owner's needs and reducing availability is not a viable option. What's more, in these data centers the existing electrical and mechanical infrastructure will remain in service and will not be replaced. These data centers distribute cool air through a raised access floor. Finally, the discussion also assumes that the data center uses large double-conversion UPS systems.If all of the above apply, facility executives have two options for saving electricity by turning things off: shutting down excess component redundancy or switching off lights.Shutting down redundancies -- This tactic applies if the facility has a single UPS system with more than one redundant module on line. In that case, all but one redundant module can be shut down. When using this practice, offline modules should be rotated to maintain storage battery charge.Consider a facility that has a UPS output load of 500 kW with three 675 kW modules online. Each module operates at about 25 percent of rated capacity (500 kW/3 modules/675 kW per module); at this percent rated capacity, each module operates at 88 percent efficiency. If one module is shut down, the other two modules will operate at 37 percent of capacity and 91 percent efficiency. At $0.10/kWH for purchased electricity and 8,760 hours per year; this generates annual savings of $17,520. If the facility has redundant...
T-Mobile’s Android Phone Has Limits Outside Google
Now that analysts are getting their hands on the T-Mobile G1, talk is beginning about what the first Android-powered phone doesn't offer. T-Mobile launched the HTC-made device Tuesday, complete with full touchscreen functionality and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for a mobile Web experience largely driven by Google products, including Search, Google Street View, Gmail and YouTube.The phone is making the intended splash. In fact, Neil Mawston, director of Wireless Device Strategies at Strategy Analytics, is forecasting a major Android impact on the 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2008. "We estimate smartphones with Google's Android operating system, led by HTC of Taiwan, will reach 0.4 million units in the quarter, for a four percent market share," Mawston said. "Android is a relatively late entrant and it will join an increasingly crowded market alongside Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Symbian and LiMo."Limited SynchronizingThe T-Mobile G1 synchronizes e-mail, calendar and contacts from Gmail as well as most other POP3 or IMAP e-mail services. The device multitasks, so you can read a Web page while also downloading e-mail in the background. And it combines Instant Messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. But there is no connection to the desktop."If I have my contacts in Outlook or my Calendar in iCal, I have no easy way of synchronizing that content onto my device without figuring out some way of getting it up to a Google service," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia. "That's fine if I am a Google user. If I am not a Google user, then I have to sign up for that service, and I have to figure out how to export and maintain my content. In some cases it...
SES: Panels, Award & Foosball Victory, Oh My
The Yahoo! Search team was in San Jose last week at Search Engine Strategies, and in addition to participating in panel discussions on semantic search, shopping search tactics and searcher behavior, we also took part in the SES Awards. The awards honor 15 search marketers and search engines, and the mission is to inspire innovation and encourage new ideas. Judges look at four key areas across all award categories: innovation in methodology and execution, achieving measurable success goals, excellence in tactical execution, and overall approach and category relevance. Yahoo! Search was evaluated in the "Search Engine with the Most Relevant Results" category by a panel of industry experts and the SES Awards editorial staff. We're happy to report that Yahoo! took home the top prize. We firmly believe that opening up our search ecosystem with platforms like SearchMonkey and BOSS, and adding features like Search Assist, will continue to enable us to focus on creating the best and most relevant search experience on the Web for users. But, a pat on the back is always nice!
As many know, foosball has long been a tradition here at Yahoo!. So, when we learned that there would be a foosball competition at SES, we knew our pride was on the line. On Wednesday night, Yahoo!'s Jake Rosenberg and Daniel Wong dueled with the major search engines to take home the Foosball title. Jake's snake shot was what secured the victory. Congrats Jake and Daniel! Overall, it was a memorable event. For more on the foosball competition, check out Yodel Anecdotal and Google's Webmaster Central Blog.Yahoo! Search Blog team
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