NEWS&ANALYSIS
the
buzz
PERIPHERALS
Catching wireless
mice, keyboards
MICROSOFT LAST WEEK ROLLED
out a slew of mice and keyboards for business users.
The Wireless Optical
Desktop Comfort Edition includes a keyboard and mouse
with enhanced ergonomic features. The keyboard is slightly
curved, and its keys are at a
6-degree angle to align better
with the natural angle of the
hand and wrist. The mouse
features Microsoft’s tilt-wheel
technology, which lets users
scroll vertically or horizontally.
The keyboard and mouse cost
$84.95.
For business users on the
go, Microsoft issued a wireless
mouse for notebooks. Priced at
$44.95, the device includes a feature that lets users power-off the
mouse when it’s not in use to
extend battery life, which Microsoft said is about three
months.
For Bluetooth users, Microsoft
announced two products: the
Optical Desktop Elite for Blue-
Optical offerings
from Microsoft are
aimed at enterprises.
tooth, for $159, and the
IntelliMouse Explorer for
Bluetooth, priced at $84.95.
—Shelley Solheim
SOFTWARE
Microsoft sets date for
SP2 auto-downloads
MICROSOFT NOTIFIED CUSTOMERS
last week that it has established
new deadlines regarding how
long users will be able to block
Windows XP Service Pack 2 from
downloading automatically to
their systems.
Last month, Microsoft made
available tools to temporarily
disable the delivery of SP2 to
users’ machines via its Windows
Update/Automatic Update patching services. A number of customers had requested these
tools, claiming they were not
ready to take delivery of SP2
due to lack of testing.
Originally, the tools were set
to postpone delivery via Windows
Update/Automatic Update for
120 days, starting Aug. 16. But
Microsoft has extended this
deadline to 240 days, or eight
months, from Aug. 16. As a result, Microsoft will begin pushing
SP2 to all Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1 customers automatically via Windows Update and Automatic
Update as of April 12, 2005.
—Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft
Watch
ACQUISITIONS
QRS dumps one suitor
in favor of another
WITH LITTLE MORE THAN A MONTH
left for supply chain software
maker JDA Software to close on
its $100 million acquisition of
QRS, the latter pulled the plug
on the deal in favor of a $116
million acquisition by Inovis
International.
QRS announced earlier this
month the termination of its
merger agreement with JDA and
said it will pay $3.75 million in
termination fees to end the
agreement. After announcing its
merger agreement with JDA in
June, QRS received five unsolicited proposals from companies looking to buy the data synchronization and data integration
software provider, the company
said. The QRS/Inovis deal is
expected to close next quarter.
—Renee Boucher Ferguson
Nokia buys Metrowerks
development tools
IN AN EFFORT TO INCREASE ITS CON-
trol over the Symbian OS, Nokia
last week acquired a collection
of application development tools
from Metrowerks.
The deal transfers all the
development and support resources of Metrowerks’ portfolio
of tools for Symbian OS to Nokia.
In addition, Metrowerks will
license several technologies,
including a debugger, compiler
and its CodeWarrior development
suite, to Nokia. Metrowerks will
resell the Nokia-owned technology, officials said.
The deal gives Nokia nearly
exclusive control of the Symbian
platform and device development
processes, which should speed
time to market for Symbian applications and broaden the pool of
available offerings, officials said.
Nokia will hire 24 Metrowerks
engineers as part of the deal and
will open a new Nokia facility in
Austin, Texas, officials said. The
deal should be finalized next quarter. Terms were not disclosed.
—Chris Gonsalves
BY THE NUMBERS
Disk storage systems
Change in total worldwide disk storage systems factory
revenue, second quarter 2003 to second quarter 2004
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Our strategy was ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid,’
and that’s what we did.
David Shatzkes, vice president for government services at
Computer Horizons, solutions provider for the Republican National
Convention at Madison Square Garden
20 e W E E K n S E P T E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 0 4
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0
-5%
-10%
ALL
VENDORS
IBM
HP
DELL OTHERS
EMC
SUN
Source: IDC worldwide quarterly disk storage systems tracker, September
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