Windows95 is suddenly no longer the be-all and end all of desktop operating systems, and having waited since the end of last year for the promised upgrade for Windows 3.1 – they are still waiting – it is now being hinted that the future of the desktop really revolves around the Windows95 user interface on Windows NT: that is the subtext gleaned by PC Week and Infoworld from analysis of what Microsoft Corp chief Bill Gates told the Corporate Association of Microcomputer Professionals in Chicago last week; Microsoft is targeting February 1996 as the release date for its first full beta release of the object-oriented Cairo evolution of Windows NT with shipment by end-1996, while the beta version of Windows NT with the Windows95 interface is planned for the turn of the year – it will be a version of the NT 3.51 code with bug fixes, the Windows95 user interface, and some new applets, sources told PC Week, with the production version set for late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of next year; Gates said the hybrid release of NT will take Microsoft a step closer toward its goal of making NT the core of all of its future operating systems; it will cost only about $100.
Nor are major users dancing in the streets at the prospect of Windows95 finally hitting the streets: according to an InfoWorld poll of 100 compuer personnel at sites with more than 1,000 users, only 7% currently have definite plans to upgrade all or some of their systems to Windows95; another 25% are considering upgrading but haven’t made a final decision; 58% are taking a wait and see approach; 78% of the users surveyed were running Windows 3.X on the majority of their personal computers; and 56% of those surveyed are considering upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT – while 37% said they would likely consider switching to OS/2 Warp.
Commenting on its fadeaway first quarter turnover and profits (page seven), Stratus Computer Inc, Marlborough, Massachusetts said that sales in the first quarter of its new Continuum product line exceeded the company’s revenue expectations: Despite the overall shortfall in revenue, we were encouraged by the response to the new Continuum product line in the first quarter, the company declared.
Avnet Inc has completed acquisition of BFI-IBEXSA International Inc, a European specialist distributor that had 1994 sales of about $54m.
Shares in Cray Electronics Plc almost halved, plunging 76 pence to 79p yesterday after it issued a warning that second-half results to April 30 would be no better than break-even after setbacks at it main Communications division; it says the problems resulted from surging costs of which the board heard only in January; it tried to curb the impact on group results, but failed as other difficulties emerged later, which was why it issued its profit warning only yesterday – We had expectations to resolve the problems much earlier, said Chairman Roger Holland; Increasing costs were one thing, but then there was also the inability to deliver products to customers later on; Cray has sacked the managers responsible, and Holland said The problem is a ddressed; to cut costs, some 200 jobs are now to go, with the rationalisation to be charged to the results – and the breakeven forecast is before charges; the warning, coupled with the fact that most of Cray’s US communications competitors are enjoying unbridled boom conditions, is causing analysts to raise questions over the quality of Cray management.
Also issuing a profits warning yesterday was networking support and services company Wakebourne Plc, which said that 1994 pre-tax profits would be around #1.8m, below market expectations, after discovery of stock discrepancies following faster than expected growth; it will not now pay a 1994 dividend; current trading is said to be going well following a 50% rise in turnover last year, Wakebourne added.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG says turnover rose 9% to about $4,215m in the first half of its current fiscal year, and incom
ing orders rose 20% to $4,711m it said.
Encore Computer Corp and Amdahl Corp say they have reached a tentative agreement resolving the contractual matters relating to their signed reseller contract: the standstill agreement has been extended to enable them to document the resolution of the agreement.
The merger of Corporate Software Inc with and R R Donnelley & Sons Co’s Global Software Services has resulted in a new Stream International Inc, starting life with annual sales of $1,300m; Stream specialises in duplicating software on floppy disk and packaging it up and claims to be the world’s largest.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG plans to shift its focus from Europe to Asia and is aiming for 20% annual growth in the region, executive vice-president Axel Hass told Reuters: the Asia Pacific region currently accounts for just 2% to 3% of Siemens Nixdorf’s global revenues, or $250m, but it plans to boost regional revenues by 20% annually over the next five years, raising its share of global sales to about 10%; it plans to increase staff to 2,500 in 10 production and development facilities in Asia by the year 2000; its parent, Siemens AG, plans to invest $3,500m in Asia by the year 2000, and Siemens Nixdorf will get its share of that; it has a personal computer plant in China, a point-of-sale plant in Singapore, and a software development facility in India, and will open a personal computer assembly plant in India soon, and plans to make mid-range systems in India and personal computers in Indonesia.
Superscape VR Plc, the developer of personal computer-based virtual reality software, has already had two break-ins since it moved to its new offices in Hook, Hampshire three months ago: nothing important was stolen, it said; just some personal computers and other bits and pieces; all stuff that is easily replaceable; apparently the burglars just bashed the door down; the new offices were officially opened yesterday by Ian Taylor, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Trade & Technology; instead of the traditional unveiling of a plaque, the Minister pointed and clicked a mouse and the curtains revealed a plaque virtually.
DeTeMobil GmbH, the mobile communications division of Deutsche Telekom AG, says it has now crossed the threshhold of 1m connections to its D1 cellular mobile phone network.
Alcatel NV reports a $15m contract by PT Telkom for a Fibre in the Loop system to connect 6,000 subscribers in Jakarta: it is Alcatel’s first contract in Indonesia.
Eight of the largest newspaper companies in the US – Advance Publications Inc, Cox Newspapers Inc, Gannett Co, Hearst Corp, Knight-Ridder Inc, Times Mirror Co, Tribune Co and Washington Post Co have formed New Century Network to assist local newspapers to publish their material on the World Wide Web of the Internet: the New Century alliance is intended to create a unified, US-wide system that will be able to withstand competition from regional telephone companies, cable television operators and commercial information networks.
UK cable television and local phone service operator General Cable Plc finally got its offer of shares away at 190 pence, a far cry from the 220 pence to 250 pence it wanted, and when the shares started trading, they immediately went to a discount; Telewest Communications Plc is trading at 152 pence, way down from its flotation price of 182p, in part because holders sold to switch into the lower-priced General Cable, all of which makes for a grim outlook for the Nynex CableComms Plc flotation in May.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd has bought a 47% stake in Delaware company Fax International Inc for $30m: Fax International offers guaranteed delivery transmission of facsimile documents with operations in the US, Japan and South Korea; Fax International will also offer to buy in some of its shares out, which could result in Singapore Telecom’s stake exceeding 50%; the stake is being held by the SingTel Global Services Pte Ltd subsidiary.
Menlo
Park, California-based FirePower Systems Inc, the Canon Inc-backed PowerPC start-up wedded to Windows NT, says that if customers really want Unix it sure as heck ain’t gonna sell them AIX – it finds Solaris more to its tastes and notices more demand; Firepower, fielding dual-PowerPC 604-based systems as well as 603s and 603Es, says the cost of deploying AIX is exorbitantly high and reckons Solaris was built to be more portable.
Novell Inc database technology spin-out Btrieve Technologies Inc, Austin, Texas, is looking at ways of getting its software up under Unix and has Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix (rather than UnixWare) in its sights: it doesn’t want to get crushed by what’s already on the market but is currently promoting its technology as the being for NT users which Informix is for Unix.
Visual Edge Software Ltd is adding version 2.9 of its UIM/X graphical user interface builder for Sun Microsystems Inc kit in May and HP-UX in June, priced at from $5,000: the new release includes a novice mode designed to enable non-programmers and new UIM/X users to create Motif graphical interfaces.
/
