This week, most of the developed world will stagger halfheartedly back to the office, attempting to work after two weeks of twinkling lights, post-nog hangovers, and watching bad TV sprawled across couches inside the houses we grew up in. Most, but not all. Once again, 150,000 members of the greater technology world will descend upon Las Vegas for the International CES, or what can only generously be described as a week of hell on earth . It is a nonstop onslaught on the senses. Companies, journalists, vendors, distributors, start-ups, wannabes, has-beens and never-weres packed into 1.8 million square feet of convention center concrete, wares splayed across plastic booths waiting to be picked over and sneezed upon. And all the rigamarole presupposes one major assumption: That any of this actually matters to you, the lovers of tech, the nerds — the consumers
Read MoreSales of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet probably weren’t ever going to break records — they certainly haven’t so far . Detwiler Fenton, a Boston-based brokerage firm, estimates that Microsoft sold just 500,000 to 600,000 Surface RTs in the December quarter. But things might improve with the debut of Surface Pro, which is slated to show up early this year. The Pro, with its Intel Core i5 processor and support for the full Office suite, is targeted at business and the prosumer markets. And according to some analysts, it’s not a stretch to think it will do well in them. Indeed, Davenport & Co. analyst Drake Johnstone says there’s some promise to the Pro and sees at least one scenario in which it could spur sales of a few million. “It is possible that Microsoft could generate solid enterprise demand for the new Surface Pro tablet,” Johnstone theorizes. “[It] will run legacy Windows 7 software applications (including Microsoft Office) and will also run Windows 8 applications. It is possible that corporations could be attracted to the Surface Pro tablet as a replacement for laptop PCs.” And if that happens, Microsoft could sell a few of them — enough perhaps to get the market and investors thinking more positively about Windows 8′s prospects. Said Johnstone, “If Microsoft is able to sell at least two million Surface Pro tablets per quarter over the remainder of fiscal 2013, then investors might assume that Windows 8 PC/tablet sales could improve in the second half of calendar 2013.” “If.” “Could.” We’ll see, I guess.
Read MoreJust as it did recently in two other instances , the U.S. Patent Office today preliminarily rejected the claims of one of Apple’s important interface patents, this one dealing with multitouch actions and containing one element that figured in Apple’s billion-dollar infringement verdict against Samsung . Apple now has the opportunity to respond as part of the re-examination process, initiated by a Samsung request.
Read MoreBox Office News: Tolkien epic bests previous record of $77 mil held by 2007's 'I Am Legend'
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Read MoreGoogle Inc. said it stopped offering its suite of Web-based software for businesses — known as Google Apps — free of charge to groups of 10 or fewer users, as it moves to generate revenue from previously free services. The move shows a renewed focus by Google on serving small businesses, which have long been the sweet spot for Google Apps. The Web-based software competes with Microsoft Corp.’s Office software and Exchange email service. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
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