Categories: Technology

The Indian Outsourcer to Watch is Based in Teaneck

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 25

(This post originally referred incorrectly to HCL Technology. The correct name is HCL Technologies.) Indian outsourcers are getting ready for more growth. Indian newspaper The Economic Times reports today that...

In Electronics, Japan Still Matters

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 17

In the global technology industry's pecking order, Japanese consumer electronics companies long ago surrendered their top spot to more nimble competitors like Samsung Electronics and Apple. Many of the country's...

LePad vs. iPad: Nice Surprises From Lenovo

Posted by: Dan Beucke on February 17

By Bruce Einhorn I've always been skeptical about Lenovo, the Chinese computer company. In 2005 it bought the PC division of IBM, a purchase that immediately made Lenovo a worldwide...

Demand Grows Despite H-1B Fight, TCS Exec Says

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 18

The chop-shop fallout continues. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) caused an uproar in India recently after he called Indian IT outsourcing companies chop shops during debate on a proposal to double...

Apple Supplier Foxconn's Boss Wins Support

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 16

Terry Gou, the embattled boss of Apple's outsourcing manufacturer Foxconn (part of Hon Hai Precision Industry) has an unlikely ally in media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Lai's chairman of Next Media,...

Tech: Is China Catching Taiwan?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on December 11

The technology gap between Taiwanese and Chinese companies is closing, according to a new survey by Deloitte. The consulting firm yesterday released its annual report on the 500 fastest-growing tech...

Infosys Acquires McCamish Systems for Up To $58 million

Posted by: Mehul Srivastava on November 13

India's second largest IT company by revenues, Infosys Technologies, says it has agreed to pay upto $58 million for Atlanta-based McCamish systems, adding some 300 U.S. staffers to its payroll,...

China Tech: Huawei's New CTO

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on September 30

On the eve of China's big 60th-anniversary bash, the country's top tech company has another reason to celebrate. Huawei Technologies announced late this afternoon that it has hired Matt Bross,...

China Tries a New Censorship Strategy

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 08

There are naturally a lot of alarming headlines today about the news from Beijing. The Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reports, will require computer companies to ship PCs with...

Intel Helps Shape Japan's WiMax Future

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 08

Intel is betting big on a Japanese company that will soon launch the world’s fastest wireless broadband services using WiMax technology. On June 7, Intel Capital said it plans to...

Minority Report Film Inspires Video Games, Cars

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 03

Minority Report, Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film, had plenty of cues about whiz-bang technologies for the future. One that’s coming to video games soon: A gizmo that translates a user’s body...

Hitachi Expects More Losses

Posted by: Kenji Hall on May 13

Hitachi is one troubled company. The Japanese tech conglomerate’s shares dropped 11% today--its biggest decline since early February, according to financial wire reports—after it said yesterday that it now expects...

India-China: Resplendent, Re-emergent Civilizations

Posted by: Manjeet Krpalani on January 22

Forget Emerging Markets, Developing Countries, Chindia, and all that stuff you heard about India and China. The new definition of these two countries is Resplendent, Re-emergent Civilizations - RRC, as...

CES: Is 3-D Video Ready for Prime Time?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on January 09

It was billed as one of the highlights of the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual geekfest held in Las Vegas. On Jan. 8, Sony teamed up with Fox Sports and...

Japan's Panasonic to Acquire Sanyo

Posted by: Kenji Hall on November 07

After a weeklong drumbeat of news about an imminent takeover deal, Panasonic, the world’s largest consumer electronics company, finally revealed on Nov. 7 its plans to acquire smaller tech rival...

Fujitsu To Buy Siemens' Stake of JV; Japan Inc.'s Global M&A Rises

Posted by: Kenji Hall on November 04

Add Fujitsu to the list of Japan’s blue chips on the hunt for acquisitions. On Nov. 4, Fujitsu said it will pay 450 million euros for Siemens’ 50% of their...

China lags in Satellite Rocket Launch Race

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on October 29

Unless you are a pre-adolescent boy or perhaps Rupert Murdoch, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about satellite rocket launchers. I know I don’t, but today, on the sidelines...

Bill Gates, Chinese Badminton Fan

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 11

Why didn’t Microsoft think of this earlier? Bill Gates is in Beijing for the Games and today went to see the Chinese badminton team’s Bao Chunlai defeat a player from...

Strange Bedfellows in Japan: Google, Apple and Yahoo

Posted by: Kenji Hall on June 10

Much has been said about Apple and Google’s awkward iPhone alliance. (On June 3, the Silicon Alley Insider touched on this very theme.) With Google’s move to customize its array...

Huawei Bid for 3Com Finally Dead?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 21

A few weeks ago I wrote here about the end of the proposed takeover of 3Com by Bain Capital and its Chinese partner Huawei Technologies. At the time, 3Com's director...

Japan's electronic toilets in two-thirds of homes

Posted by: Ian Rowley on February 19

It's taken a generation, but according to data from Japan's Cabinet Office, a remarkable 65% of Japanese homes now include toilets with electronic bidets. That's up from 14% in 1992...

The next step for India's IT companies

Posted by: Manjeet Krpalani on February 13

Nasscom’s annual conference held in Bombay has become a must-go event for people in the business. Over the years, it has attracted not just people in the tech business in...

Microsoft's Yahoo bid sends Softbank's stock into orbit

Posted by: Ian Rowley on February 03

Japan's retail investors didn't waste too much time mulling over the likely impact of Microsoft's huge $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. In Monday morning trading in Tokyo, stock in Softbank,...

YouTube Finds a Convert Among Japan's Content Owners

Posted by: Kenji Hall on January 25

Can Google resolve the standoff with content owners in Japan over copyright issues on YouTube that’s dragged on for nearly a year? The short answer is, Google still has some...

How much will India's tech sector be hit by the US recession?

Posted by: Manjeet Krpalani on January 08

Indian outsourcers are likely to take a hit with the onset of the recession in the United States, their main market.

Panasonic, Google mashup

Posted by: Kenji Hall on January 08

Ever since Sony launched an Internet video-to-TV service for its Bravia flat-panel sets last August, the one question on everyone's lips: When will someone tie up with (Google-owned) YouTube? The...

Shanghai's high-tech flop

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on August 03

Foreign visitors to Shanghai marvel at the high-tech link between the airport and the city, a super-fast train without wheels that floats over the track thanks to magnetic levitation. The...

Taiwanese find India

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 12

Ma Ying-jeou, the former* chairman of the KMT (Taiwan’s largest opposition party) and presidential candidate in next year's elections, arrived in India yesterday. Amazingly, this is the first trip by...

Flat-TV Acronyms

Posted by: Kenji Hall on May 21

Remembering all the acronyms for the different types of TVs out there can be a bit like staring into a bowl of alphabet soup. There's CRT, which stands for...

Are pay TV pirates on the rampage in Asia?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 24

Free cable. For some, those are magic words. But how many people really try to get cable TV for free? In the U.S., most Americans recognize free cable for what...

India struggles to copy China's SEZs

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on October 09

For anybody wondering why China is already an economic power and Asia’s other giant, India, is struggling to catch up, consider four letters: SEZs. They stand for “Special Economic Zones,”...

China can build things. Why can't India?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on September 12

India’s top science and technology official is in China, making excuses about why his country’s infrastructure is so shoddy. Shanghai has brilliant new skyscrapers and museums and parks and trains...

Blu ray makes a splash with titles in Japan

Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 29

The content war for the rival next-generation DVD formats is upon us. At a splashy event in Tokyo, the Blu-ray disc camp—which includes 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures,...

A Penny For Your Thoughts...

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 27

In a high-tech economy like Japan's, good ideas are priceless. But Japanese tech companies have never been that generous in rewarding inventive employees for their work. Take the case of...

Temper tantrum

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 12

Another ugly turn in the long saga of China’s home-grown wireless encryption standard. Two years ago, Intel and other companies complained about Beijing’s attempts to force them to use WAPI,...

OLEDs - ready or not?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on June 07

Tired of the display on your cell phone fading into oblivion when you're standing in the sun? Maybe you want a handset with an organic light emitting diod (OLED). For...

Can Buffett be eyeing Sony's financial unit?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on May 11

Japan's financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun is well-known for the guessing games it plays. During earnings season, it's notorious for splashing profit figures on the front page that often turn...

Piracy progress in China. Really.

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 29

Convinced that rampant counterfeiting of goods in China is undercutting American companies? No need to worry, the Chinese government is on your side. With U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez visiting...

I want my SED TV!

Posted by: Kenji Hall on March 10

It should hardly come as a shock that a next-generation flat TV technology developed by Toshiba and Canon is facing delays of a year and a half. After all, the...

Cochlear impants - from India?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 10

Among companies producing technology to help people with profound hearing loss hear, Sydney-based Cochlear Ltd. has an almost Microsoft-like dominance. Last year I wrote a BW story about the...

Want to withdraw cash? Hold out your palm, please.

Posted by: Kenji Hall on March 08

Fujitsu has just outdone itself in biometrics. Nearly two years ago, the company got rave reviews for developing a security system that can read the veins in a person's...

Two directions for Taiwan

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on March 01

From Taiwan this week, another sign of how politics is heading in one direction, the IT industry in another. Independence-minded President Chen Shui-bian on Feb. 27 announced plans to scrap...

Sony's Stringer Gets His Way

Posted by: Kenji Hall on February 27

Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer's plan to build a better Sony was widely panned when he announced it last September. Analysts griped that his Mr. Nice Guy approach to staff...

Beijing sends a message to Google

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on February 21

Now it’s the Chinese government’s turn to beat up on Google. Earlier this month, the company got grilled in Washington by members of Congress for its willingness to censor its...

Sony's PS3 pinch

Posted by: Kenji Hall on February 21

Sony says it's still aiming for a spring launch for its PlayStation 3 but also admits that a delay is possible. That acknowledgement comes after a Feb. 17 Merrill Lynch...

China chip delays for Bush's brother

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on February 20

Neil Bush’s Chinese semiconductor adventure has taken a turn for the worse. George W. Bush’s little brother made headlines back in 2003 when, during a nasty divorce from his then-wife...