Business models now matter more than sales February 22, 2010 When I was in my late twenties, I had a baptism of fire while trying to establish the Power PC chip as a new industry standard. In early 1992, IBM, Apple and Motorola announced that they would be developing a new microprocessor – to be called the PowerPC – to power the Apple Macintosh and [...]
TIMELINE | ABBEY ROAD STUDIO – A HISTORY February 22, 2010 THE BEGINNINGS The 19th Century town house at 3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, was purchased by EMI in 1929 with a view to transforming it into the world’s first custom-built recording studios. British classical music composer Sir Edward Elgar, opened the studios in a ceremony on 12 November 1931. Elgar can be seen in [...]
Apple leads the way on mobile phone design February 17, 2010 Apple is casting a long shadow over this year’s Mobile World Congress. The iPhone maker isn’t in attendance – it is far too cool for an annual trade fair – but its name is still on everyone’s lips. For a firm that has just 2.5 per cent of the mobile handset market, its ability to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES UNITED REMAINS KEEN TO COURT RIVAL CONTINENTAL The head of United Airlines has hinted at the benefits of renewing merger talks with Continental Airlines, saying the market had judged in favour of rival Delta’s takeover of Northwest. “The market capitalisation of Delta is approximately twice the combined market capitalisation of United and Continental,” [...]
Missing the mark in museum land February 15, 2010 AUBREY, the restaurant of The Kensington Hotel, is named after Aubrey de Vere, who I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you was a middle-ranking medieval baron and chum of William the Conqueror. He netted himself the estate of Kensington after the Norman Conquest, according to the Domesday book. Back then, the estate was [...]
THREE OTHER KENSINGTON RESTAURANTS February 15, 2010 BABYLON Sitting seven floors up atop the Kensington Roof Gardens, Babylon has some pretty splendid views out over West London – and indeed over the gardens’ flamingo pond – to distract you from its stonkingly expensive menu. There’s jazz on Thursday evenings. The Roof Gardens, 99 Kensington High Street, W8 5ED. www.roofgardens.virgin.com. CASA BRINDISA There’s [...]
Mobile firms unite to offer apps platform February 15, 2010 A GROUP of 24 telecom companies are clubbing together to build a mobile phone application platform in a bid to compete with Apple. The alliance – which includes O2, Orange and Vodafone – is hoping that its combined customer base of 3bn will allow it to steal market share from Apple’s App Store. Mobile applications [...]
Microsoft to launch new mobile service February 15, 2010 MICROSOFT boss Steve Ballmer yesterday unveiled Windows Phone 7 as the latest weapon in his fight against Google and Apple. The much-anticipated mobile operating system will start appearing on handsets in the second half of 2010, Ballmer said at Mobile World Congress, the industry’s annual trade fair. He added: “Windows Phone 7 marks a turning [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 15, 2010 HSBC Private Bank Bassem Snaije has been appointed as head of the London-based Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team at the private bank. Snaije joins from Cosmos Advisors and Pegase Partners Group in Paris, where he was a partner advising on private equity, real estate and M&A deals in the Middle East. He also [...]
ARM men sell £8.5m shares February 15, 2010 SENIOR figures at ARM Holdings, the Cambridge-based microprocessor designer, have cashed out £8.5m worth of shares after the stock soared on speculation its technology is used in Apple’s new iPad. Chief executive Warren East raised £1.8m by selling 937,000 shares last week, leaving him with around 1m shares. Other members reducing their stakes included finance [...]