Geeks target China’s new PC - the mobile

George Mackintosh, the head of TestPlant, a software testing company, believes this will change.
“China is number one,” he says. “There is a bigger opportunity here than in India. A couple of years ago, you would say India was the biggest market for our products. I don’t think it is now. What is happening here is going to rocket past India because software is going mobile.”
About 277m Chinese are now using their mobile phones to access the internet, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre.
More than half of China’s computer users, in fact, don’t have a computer. Instead, they are taking the cheap option of using their phones to get online.
“Those phones are computers,” says Mr Mackintosh. “You can use them to read a newspaper or get your executive reports.” For TestPlant, which licenses its computer program to help software developers test their products, it is a market that has emerged out of nothing.
The complicated graphics on the screens of mobile phones all need to be tested, and then re-tested, to make sure the programs work.
“In the past this was all done by hand. This testing represents between 30pc and a staggering 70pc of the cost of building the software,” he says. “And if you change a version, or update it, you need to make sure the whole thing holds together,” he adds.
“At the moment, all this testing is largely manual. Our program is like a trained robot that can run through all the variations and possibilities for you repetitively, and if it finds a bug it will take a photo of the screen,” he explains.
Most importantly, he says, his program beats out competition from IBM and Hewlett Packard because it can recognise images, including, of course, Chinese characters.
An early start would be China’s 5m iPhone customers, who are currently mostly running hacked or pirated applications.
Apple’s application store has been a failure so far, in terms of popularity. Chinese customers are required to have an international credit card, rather than China’s domestic UnionPay system.
Nevertheless, TestPlant has recently released a version of its program for iPhone applications.
Meanwhile, the company, which already has deals with the BBC, Sky, the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Justice, is looking for a Chinese partner.
“We are entirely open to technology transfer,” says Mr Mackintosh. “In the West there is a cynicism about small software companies. I didn’t feel that here. I felt there was a hunger to find productivity tools, which is odd given how big China’s labour market it. But the people I’ve been speaking to want to know how they can get greater productivity and even greater quality.”
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Hewlett-Packard’s Mark Hurd gets job offers after being ousted

In one instance, Mr Hurd, who ran HP for five years, is said to have received a call about a potential opening the day after his resignation was announced.
He is also said to have told these friends – who the Journal does not name – that he is in a period of “mourning” after his hasty exit. As such, it is expected to be some time before he returns to full-time work, a decision that will be cushioned by the $30m-$35m (£19.2m-£22.4m) payoff he received on departing.
Mr Hurd was forced from his role as chairman and chief executive following an investigation by HP’s board into his conduct after Ms Fisher claimed he had harassed her.
Although the company found that he did not harass Ms Fisher, he was said to have breached business standards guidelines by allegedly altering expenses claims in order to cover up the pair’s friendship, a charge friends of Mr Hurd have gone on to deny in several reports.
Earlier this week it emerged that Mr Hurd agreed to settle privately Ms Fisher’s claims with her just two days before the board meeting which led to his resignation, and a day ahead of a scheduled mediation session with HP’s lawyers.
It is understood the move incensed HP’s board, and led to his ousting.
Meanwhile, details of Ms Fisher’s original claim have appeared in a number of media in the US, including an allegation that she lost her contracting role with HP because she refused his sexual advances. The claim is understood to have been lodged at the end of June.
Mr Hurd has denied making any such advances towards Ms Fisher, who worked for HP’s marketing department for two years until 2009. Her main role was helping to organise networking events for HP and its customers, at which directors such as Mr Hurd would attend.
It is understood that she worked for HP on 12 separate occasions during that two-year window, most of which occurred in the first year, with the number of events slowing in the second year as the company’s marketing budget was trimmed.
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Hewlett-Packard buys Palm for $1.2bn: analysts’ reaction

Published: 11:21PM BST 28 Apr 2010

PHIL CUSICK, ANALYST, MACQUARIE RESEARCH

“If you saw the guidance Palm just put out, it was clear they had to sell.

“You go through what we’ve seen in terms of pricing from Verizon, who dropped
prices to clear inventory and Sprint as well, I don’t see why carriers would
be re-ordering at those levels. Given how quickly Palm’s business was
falling off and how fast their cash was going out the door, they’re lucky to
get what they got.

Read more

U2’s Bono loses out as Hewlett-Packard swoops on Palm for $1.2bn

By James Quinn, US Business Editor






Published: 11:13PM BST 28 Apr 2010

Bono’s private equity venture, Elevation Partners, owns an approximate 30pc
stake in Palm, having invested $460m in the struggling handset maker in 2007
and 2008. The H-P deal values Palm’s equity at $961m – the rest of the deal
price is debt – meaning Elevation’s stake will be worth roughly $320m.

Palm, which began life in 1992 as one of the companies at the forefront of the
personal digital assistant (PDA), has struggled of late as a result of
lagging sales and increasing marketing costs, downgrading sales estimates
for the current quarter by more than half in March.

Palm put itself up for sale earlier this month, amid speculation of offers
from Lenovo of China and HTC of Taiwan.

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HP ‘agrees to help’ job axe staff

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to work with the Scottish Government in finding new job or retraining opportunities for 700 workers it is to axe in Renfrewshire.

The electronics giant said on Thursday it planned to close manufacturing operations at its Erskine plant and transfer work to the Czech Republic.

Read more

PC-maker Dell’s profits slump 63%

Dell has seen its latest quarterly profits decline by almost two-thirds as the worldwide recession continues to hit sales of computers.

The world’s second-largest maker of personal computers made a net profit of $290m (£182m) in the three months to 1 May, down 63% from $784m a year ago.

Read more

Hewlett-Packard to cut 700 jobs

Hundreds of jobs could be cut at the Hewlett Packard plant in Erskine near Glasgow, it is feared.

It has been reported that as many as 850 manufacturing jobs could go as the company transfers work to the Czech Republic next year.

Read more

Laptop sales jump helps HP profit

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has reported a 21% jump in sales of laptops for the August to October period and a 99% rise in revenue from technology services.

The increase in services revenues follows HP’s acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Read more

Dell sees quarterly profits slip

US computer maker Dell has seen its quarterly profits slip 5%, as customers worldwide bought fewer computers.

Dells profits in the third quarter were $727m (£492.3m), down from $766m in the same period last year. Read more

HP’s profits exceed expectations

The world’s biggest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard (HP), has beaten forecasts by posting a better-than-expected net profit in the fourth quarter.

HP said it made a $1.03 (£0.68) net profit per share excluding charges, 3% higher than the Wall Street analysts expected. Read more

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