Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

All You Need Is… $600 Mil?

March 10, 2008

Automotive Robotics Sales Increase

March 7, 2008

Don’t call it a comeback.   Ok, well maybe a little comeback.   According to the latest numbers from the Robotic Industries Association, North American-based robotics companies saw orders to North American manufacturing companies rise 24% in 2007, reversing the declines of the previous year. The trade group is reporting a total of 15,856 robots, with an overall value of $1.07 billion were ordered by North American manufacturing companies.   “We’re obviously very pleased to see strong growth in 2007, especially following the 30% decline in 2006,” said Ake Lindqvist of ABB Robotics and chairman of the RIA statistics committee. “Most of the growth last year resulted from sales to automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. In this market segment, which accounted for 64% of all orders, robot sales in North America rose 43%,” Lindqvist noted.   Apparently automotive companies went on a binge in 2007, as orders for spot-welding robots increased 100%, coating and dispensing rose 38%, material handling jumped 14%, and arc welding jumped 10%.   But Lindqvist believes that future growth of the market depends on reaching outside the automotive space.   “The robotics industry’s future expansion depends upon reaching more nonautomotive customers, and we still have a long way to go.

Digg on the Block? Again?

March 7, 2008

As far as rumors go, this one has been heard before, but that’s not to say that one of these times, it won’t actually come to fruition.   Tech Crunch’s Michael Arrington writes that Digg is on the block again and that several companies —Microsoft, Google, and two “media/news companies” — are close to making offers.   Arrington reports that Digg might be willing to let itself go for less than the $300 million price tag that investment bank Allen &Co. were suggesting last year.   The march to own the hearts and minds (and of course page views) continues. Will it be Google? Will it be Microsoft?   It’s odd how perceptions change over time. Remember when Microsoft was considered to be pure evil, and Google was the up and coming, cute and cuddly upstart?   And now?   Is it just me, or is there a slowly rising tide of support for Microsoft to act as a counterbalance to the Google total assimilation machine?

Analysts Excited By "Google Health"

March 6, 2008

The Internet's Broken

March 5, 2008

Qualcomm Drops Another Battle in Nokia Patent War

March 3, 2008

Qualcomm has taken it on the chin today.   In its ongoing legal patent battle with Nokia, (this time in the U.K.) Justice Christopher Floyd ruled at the High Court in London that one of Qualcomm's patents is invalid and another is partially invalid.   This all has to do with Nokia and Qualcomm’s fight over technology used in 3G phones to allow faster Internet access.   Nokia’s CFO, Rick Simonson welcomed the ruling. "We are pleased with the Court's decision that the patent claims are invalid and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts. This is the second court to conclude that Qualcomm does not have relevant and valid GSM patents."   Last week, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) decided against Qualcomm's petition for review of the Initial Determination, which was issued on December 12, 2007.

RebTel Appeals to US Representatives

March 3, 2008

Siemens Launches OpenScape Unified Communications Server

March 3, 2008

Google Gets Into Healthcare

February 29, 2008

I was down in Orlando this week for the annual HIMMS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference and exhibition, a show dedicated to transforming healthcare through IT.   This is a new space for me, so I attended with the view of taking in as much as I possibly could in the short time I had at the show. I’d also like to send a great big thank you out to Michael Carr of IgeaCare, who took the time to shepherd me around the event.   I’ll be writing more about my experience in an upcoming issue of Internet Telephony and of course here on TMCnet, but I wanted to get a quick post in about something Google is doing on the healthcare front.   Last week Google announced a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, a large academic medical center centered around giving patients access to their own medical records.   The pilot is open to just a few thousand patients to start, but Google is collaborating with a number of insurance plans, medical groups, pharmacies and hospitals to see the project through.   Writing on the Official Google Blog, Alan Newberger, Engineering Manager, expressed his view that the pilot was a key initiative. “I see it as an important first step to show how Google can help users get access to their medical records and take charge of their health information,” he wrote.   CEO Eric Schmidt gave the closing keynote at HIMMS, and he spoke publicly for the first time about Google’s overall health strategy.   According to Google’s Marissa Mayer, VP, Search & User Products, “Google Health aims to solve an urgent need that dovetails with our overall mission of organizing patient information and making it accessible and useful.

Google Targets Microsoft Collaboration Suite

February 28, 2008

Google is taking aim at Microsoft’s SharePoint.   Google announced Wednesday it will begin offering an easy to use Web site creation and publishing tool for office workers to set up and run collaboration sites, for quickly sharing information among project teams and co workers.   Google Sites, as the new site publishing service is known, is based on the acquisition 16 months ago of hosted wiki provider JotSpot.   The new service is designed to allow teams of users to organize and share digital information such as Web links, calendars, photos, videos, presentations, attachments and other documents in an easy-to-maintain site, with the goal of increasing productivity among the team members.   Of course, Microsoft’s dominance in this market (some pundits see SharePoint as a billion-dollar business for Microsoft) is not to be taken lightly, but when it comes to contenders, Google is no slouch, and is in fact the biggest thorn in Microsoft’s side on so many other fronts it almost comes as no surprise that they would be launching a would-be competitor to SharePoint now.   Aside from functionality, the key difference between the offerings is cost, with Google offering their Google Sites free of charge to users of Google Apps, which in turn is less expensive than many Microsoft tools.   As usual in any battle between companies of this scale, it remains to be seen what the impact will be on the other players (think zoho) in the market and in the end, we need to ask ourselves this: Will today’s announcement help businesses maximize their productivity in the long run?
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