Blackberry Tweet via iPhone Catches Attention

Folks at Canada-based mobile manufacturing company, BlackBerry, are definitely having an awkward day after the company’s official Twitter feed just received a tweet via iPhone, i.e. its top competitor, on January 13, 2015, at 11:08 am. Even though the tweet was deleted immediately after it was posted, the damage had been done.

The message posted on Tuesday afternoon promoted the new BlackBerry Classic phone and urged consumers to “keep up with the conversation” on Twitter, accompanying a lovely looking photo of the BlackBerry Classic.

Official Biography of Steve Jobs Available for Pre-Order

Cover via Amazon

A biography of Steve Jobs, which has been officially authorized by Mr. Jobs personally, has just been made available on Amazon.com for pre-ordering. This book, entitled ‘iSteve: The Book of Jobs’ is available to pre-order for any Apple user from iBookstore as well. Both the retailing sources have coined the date of 6^th March 6, 2012 to be the official release date, which is almost around nine months from now. The author of this biography, Walter Isaacson, has a very impressionable portfolio of biographies of many famous personalities in the past. He has penned the biography of public figures like Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Einstein: His Life and Universe and Kissinger: A Biography.

Amazon.com and iBookStore both described the book, at the product description section, to be accredited by one of the well-experienced authors of our times, Walter Isaacson. It is exclusively mentioned that ‘iSteve: The Book of Jobs,’ has given an extraordinary story of both the professional and personal lives of Jobs, by the hand of Isaacson. It is stated that the information has been “drawn from his three years of exclusive and unprecedented interviews Isaacson” along with his family members, key colleagues from Apple and its competitors too.

The price of the book, for pre-orders only, has been set to $16.50 for the physical copy, and $14.99 for the Kindle or iBooks edition. Steve Jobs has always been admired for his successfulness in protecting his private and personal life from his professional and public life. This is a key factor, that an official biography of such a person would be even more interesting. Many aspects of Steve Jobs’s biography have already been made public due to previously written books including Fire in the Valley and The Little Kingdom. But previously just one book, iCon: Steve Jobs, was an authorized and official copy and this will be the second.

RIM Keeps Losing Its Market Share to Apple, Google

According to the report of a recently conducted research, the analysts have declared that Research In Motion has laid off even more of its market share to the giants, Apple and Google, in the extremely competitive U.S. smartphone market than ever before. Now that the two mobile phone giants are attempting to cut price targets, it has raised even more concerns for the BlackBerry maker. Even this Friday, the shares of RIM kept on declining, as the research firm stated that the market share of company has been reducing constantly since three months now.

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Meanwhile the rapidly grown Android platform of Google has peaked up to a 36.4 percent shares in its value and Apple's iPhone increased to a 26 percent, whereas, RIM kept falling down and has lessened down to 25.7 percent from its 30.4 percent share last quarter. These statistics were published in the report of comScore, whereas it has lead to a drop of RIM’s position from second to third in the market. This on-going struggle of RIM is very much unlikely to get easier any soon, the upcoming new iCloud service of Apple is anticipated to cause even more troubles for RIM, predicts Sterne Agee analyst, Shaw Wu.

The shares of RIM, who was once the leader in the corporate smartphone market, have almost lost all of their value since Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software completely transformed the whole sector. The shares of RIM have gone 3.7 percent lower on the Nasdaq at $38.93, which is the first time they ever went below $40 since March 2009. Many analysts claim this downfall of RIM to be aided by its poor price targeting in stock citing concerns, increasing competition and uncertainty in the timings of launch of new product.

The new BlackBerry Bold, a touchscreen model of RIM, was actually announced to be released in "summer," i.e. somewhere early May. But this mobile is not even reaches the stores until September yet, pointed out the tech blog Boy Genius.

Toshiba Steps in the Tablet Market with Thrive, Going On Sale in July

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Toshiba Corp is one of the very recent companies which have stepped their foot in the steeply growing tablet market, it will be making its debut with a 10-inch device called Thrive. It will be retailed at a price slightly less than the Apple Inc’s market leading iPad 2. This new tablet from Toshiba, Thrive, is scheduled to make its way in the market of the United States on the 10^th of July, 2011, as other companies like Research in Motion Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Co, still work on their debut products to make their way into the tablet market.

Thrive will only be powered with Wi-Fi connectivity and the basic model will be retailed at the price of $429. It is definitely aimed to be primarily housed at the consumers which are going to use it as a home computer, declared the GM of digital products at Toshiba America, Jeff Barney. This device will be running on the latest version of Google Inc.’s largely admired Android OS’s Honeycomb version. The device will begin its online pre-ordering from 13^th June, from almost all retailers including Best Buy Co Inc, Amazon.com Inc and others.

Toshiba is expecting that its tablet sales will explode worldwide and anticipates that it might have to ship even more than 50 million until the end of 2011 only. Chief rival of Toshiba’s Thrive tablet, Apple’s iPad sold almost 15 million devices in just the nine months after its release in 2010. Whereas iPad’s are even expected to further strengthen their dominance in the market in the next term. While in the smartphone market, the chief rival of Apple, Google Inc.’s Android platform is expected to strengthen its leading position. Android market is free to license and being used by innumerable tablets already.

Apple Finally Closes the Deal with Universal for iCloud Music Service, Ready to Be Previewed at WWDC

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It is finally confirmed by concealed sources that Apple has signed the deal with the last among the four major music labels it was going to take on-board for its cloud music service, iCloud. Apple had already scored the last three deals few weeks in advance but the deal signing with Universal Music Group was lingering since then, but now this deal has also been confirmed. Now Apple has the approval of all four major music labels, which includes EMI, Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. Whereas, the only thing that Apple lacked were the agreements with music publishers, but now apparently it has been revealed that these have also been taken care of. It was revealed that Apple has acquired agreements with many publishers already, and that the puzzle of creating a flawless cloud music service was finally complete and ready for WWDC.

It has been officially declared by Apple representatives that the annual WWDC will be taking place through the next week and begin this monody, whereas for the first time ever, the lineup of the conference was also informed in advance. Apple has formally disclosed that along with its cloud-based online music service, iClould, it will also be revealing the latest version of its mobile OS, i.e. iOS5 and the Mac Lion OS as well. Though no further detail, regarding any of these software enhancements, has been disclosed so for all that we know, iCloud could not even be a cloud based music service at all, since it is not officially confirmed by Apple Inc.

The Shape of Apple's iCloud Logo Revealed To Be A Simple Cloud

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If Apple Inc. can uniquely keep its famous logo as a shape of apple, than it shall be not be so surprising to know that their much-anticipated new music service, iCloud, is nothing but a shape of a cloud. It was first discovered at the headquarters of Apple Inc. in San Francisco, where the host company has almost reached the final phase of preparation of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). This internationally admired week-long conference will begin this Monday.

Apple Insider reported that it has seen across the building and witnessed a large banner placed in the lobby of Apple’s headquarters building. It was revealed that there were total three large logos placed on the banner, first for the upcoming Lion OS for Mac PCs, second for the latest version of its mobile OS which is iOS 5, and the last one for its new cloud-based music service iCloud. Shaping the iCloud’s logo, it was explained that the logo has a simple black outline at its silvery background. This is the first time that iCloud service is explored more than just a title name; it has been given a shape.

Acer Announces To Write-down Charge, And Cut 300 Jobs in Europe Division

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The world’s second largest PC manufacturer, Acer Inc, has decided to take a $150 million charge for writing off inventory and doubtful payments in Europe while giving up almost 300 jobs due to the after affects of the abrupt withdrawal of its CEO in March. According to an official statement released by the company on Wednesday, Acer declared that all of its internal audits have disclosed that "abnormalities in terms of channel inventory stored in freight forwarders' warehouses, and in accounts receivable from channels in Spain."

This write-off is an additional bad news for the company after the critical withdrawal of its former CEO, Gianfranco Lanci. Acer had first cut its first-quarter PC revenue on 24^th of March, which led to a downfall of 18 percent in the stock price in four days, till the time when Lanci quit. Even before a month had passed, the company cut the second-quarters’ shipment predictions and asserted that the situation has even worsened with 64 percent of decline in the first-quarter net profit. The sales of April, 2011, steeply fell to 23 percent compared to last year.

Steve Jobs Will Personally Deliver Apple’s Keynote Speech at the WWDC Next Week Inaugurating the iCloud Service

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The famed C.E.O. of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, will be returning from his medical leave as he makes an appearance to give the keynote speech at Apple’s hosted WWDC next week. It was revealed officially by the representatives on Tuesday, as they also added that keynote will specifically include Apple’s new service called "iCloud." It was still left unexplained whether what exactly the iCloud service is referred to, but the rumors have been extremely explicit regarding the negotiation of Apple with all four major recording companies. Hence it is largely suspected that iCloud will be Apple’s cloud based storage service for songs, which will allow the users to keep their library updated on the Apple-run servers rather than their home PCs.

Steve Jobs took a medical leave in January this year due to undisclosed reasons, as the temporary control of the company was handed over to C.E.O. Tim Cook. But even after staying on leave, Jobs still was highly consulted in all major decisions of the company, and he also displayed the new iPad model at a news conference in March. Now Apple’s famous annual Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC, will start this Monday in San Francisco. The news of Jobs to make a special appearance at the conference from his leave is a clear signal that he is hoping iCloud to be the next record breaking innovation of the company.

WSJ Releases Details of Apple’s Cloud Storage Service, iCloud - Set to Be Launched at WWDC

This Tuesday, unlike ever before, Apple made the announcement of the program line up for the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) scheduled next week.  The lineup revealed that the conference will include much-anticipated cloud storage service, named iCloud, along with iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion. Further news regarding iCloud has been published by Wall Street Journal which claims that Apple’s agreements with most music labels are a success. iCloud is fundamentally going to be a digital musical locker, quite akin to its rival services like Amazon’s Cloud Player and Google Music. Whereas WSJ reports that the distinguishing feature of Apple’s service will be the benefits of getting the music labels to sign deals, as it will consequently make it easier for users to access their libraries.

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Both rival services, Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player, currently make the users manually upload any song they want in their online locker, making the task of uploading complete music libraries a very hectic and tedious job. While Amazon still lets any songs bought from online Amazon store to be added to Cloud Player library automatically, the songs and libraries before the activation of Cloud Player account still need to be uploaded one by one. Whereas, WSJ has disclosed that Apple will, due to the signings with the music labels, allow its users to simply use the “scan and match” feature. This will let the users’ iTunes library to be scanned for all song files, and the ones recognized by the music labels will be automatically given access to from the Apple’s server. This will release the task of uploading entire libraries to the servers.

Google’s former CEO and Executive Chairman, Schmidt, Reviews Its Rivals Including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook at an Interview

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Eric Schmidt, Google’s co-founder and executive chairman, stated that his company is a member of “gang of four” kings leading the consumer technology. His list of these four kings including, except Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook hence it specifically ruled out Microsoft. He was giving an opening interview at the All Things D conference, held in southern California. Schmidt was very certain to ignore the world’s largest software company in the race of enterprise, he stated that Microsoft was “not driving the consumer revolution in the minds of consumers.” He explained that most of the profits of Microsoft are gained by the corporate sales and not from consumers. Schmidt did not even include the Xbox gaming system in the evaluation as he stated it was “not a platform at the computational level.”

Schmidt made it sound like a threat for Microsoft, that it should be afraid of Google and its enterprise space. Schmidt declared that we are all seeing “the death of IT as we know it,” as innumerable companies are taking the major step of moving their data from local servers to online servers. Microsoft is one of the great rivals of Google, in the race to release better cloud-based services in the market.

Schmidt had ambivalent words for Apple; Google has partnered Apple in some cases like search and maps, but it is also among its chief rivals in cases like mobile operating system. Schmidt admitted that Apple has very “beautiful products” in the market, but also stated that the company is a little too harshly on its iOS developers. He said, on the contrary, that the developers of Android relatively enjoy more freedom in the app development and releasing sector. He stated that “Apple’s model is the reverse of the Google model,” adding that “the Google model is, let the market decide.”

Apple Extends Its iWork Apps to the iPhone & iPod Touch Models Too

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It has been a complete year since the launch of Apple’s record breaking tablet iPad, along with which Apple also released its office suit titled iWork. It was not only released exclusively on iPad, but also remained exclusive to the tablet until now. Apple has now announced that it will be extending its office suite, which is actually a bundle of productive apps, to be compatible with the small screens of iPhone and iPod touch as well. The iWork apps of Apple, which include a Keynote, Pages and Numbers, will all be available for download in the App Store, at a retail price of $9.99 each. These apps are aimed to give the users elite experience, while using Apple’s smooth operating system and its multi-touch interface, to create presentations, write documents and calculate through spreadsheets. The only reason anticipated for why Apple only kept these apps exclusively for the iPad, and not to other iOS devices like iPhone and iPod, is that these features like advanced word processing would not have been so comfy to do on small screens like iPhone or iPod Touch.

The announcement by Apple today declared that it has now updated all the iWork apps to work in full compatibility on smaller screens, like the ones of iPod touch and iPhone. Even though each of Pages, Keynote and Numbers will be retailed for $9.99 on the iPhone App Store, it will still be free for download to the users who have already purchased these apps on their iPad in advance. Functionality and features of the apps are almost entirely the same as they are on the iPad.

Samsung Decides to Hold On To Android for Running Galaxy Tab, as It Competes with Apple’s iPad

A senior executive of Samsung Electronics has declared that the company will be relying solely on Google's Android Operating System to run its mobiles and upcoming editions of tablet computers. It was published in an interview story by Wall Street Journal this Tuesday, as the head of Samsung’s mobile division, J.K. Shin, stated that "We'll continue to work with Android on future tablets."

            Image by osde8info via Flickr

The world’s second largest mobile manufacturer, Samsung Electronics, is runners up to the market leader from Finland, Nokia. But Samsung still has to catch up with the conquering popularity of Apple's iPhone and iPad, as Apple retains its control over smartphone and tablet markets with its towering consumer base. However, there is no ambiguity regarding the spearhead technology of Android system which turned the mobile OS market upside down and almost took over the entire smartphone business, Samsung is hoping to have the same results with its tablets as it sticks to the Android OS to power them.

Facebook Suspected to Make a Team for Designing Its Desktop Software App, Overlooking the Lack of iPad App

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Apparently, Facebook is looking to employ more engineers in order to create a new desktop software team. TechCrunch has highlight that a posting for jobs pages of Facebook, the world’s largest social networking website, titled "Software Engineer, Desktop Software." This job vacancy was cited at Facebook’s official website, enlisting the job post to be available in the recently-opened Seattle office. Further the elaborative detailed of the job states: "The desktop software team is a new team at Facebook based out of Seattle, WA. We will be working on new products that we expect to deliver to millions of users' computers to help make their entire computing experience more social. Facebook is seeking experienced software engineers in Seattle to join this team."

It was also listed that further responsibilities expected by the job applicants are to "create desktop applications for Mac and/or Windows, work closely with our product and design teams to define feature specifications, work closely with our Platform team to build server-side APIs and interfaces in support of these applications, [and] conduct design and code reviews."

After Being Challenged By Apple, Lodsys Now Decides To Threaten the Android App Developers

Lodsys went after several iOS app developers last week, for supposedly utilizing their patented in-app payment technology without permission, and had to face threat from Apple Inc. Apple gave an official statement claiming that it has all the licensed rights for the technology it has extended to its developers.

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Hence, when Lodsys feared a legal confrontation with Apple Inc., it deviated from its goal and has now sinisterly lodged similar complaints against the Android app developers. A group of Mac users identified in a public forum thread that an Android developer has also mentioned that he was contacted by Lodsys over the same issue. A user with a screen name “Markusn82” wrote in the forum: “We recently implemented in-app purchases for our Android application and several weeks later we received a letter from Lodsys, claiming that we infringed on their patents.” The post further also makes an inquiry asking fellow Android app developers, if anyone has also received such notification or have fallen victim to this incident. Furthermore, the more important inquiry was made asking whether or not shall they expect Google to step in and do something to help its developers, like Apple had done.

Amazon Now Opens an Alternative ‘Mac App Store’ after ‘App Store for Android Devices’

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The court has yet to decide the on whether Amazon.com shall be allowed to sell Android apps and call the market, an “App Store,” when rather than waiting for the decision Amazon.com has extended its market. Amazon is the largest online retailer of U.S., and has now offered apps and software’s for Apple’s Mac operating system. This will directly put the Apple's own Mac App Store in competition with Amazon. This Mac app store was initially announced back in October at Amazon’s Back To Mac event and then released on 6^th January offering almost 1,000 apps, mostly games.

These apps and software’s offered for Mac OS are not exactly new, but the app store displays them in distinguished sorting without any fanfare, with a special section for game. However it is interesting that Amazon has not named this app store, an ‘app store,’ which is a phrase that Apple wants to trademark. Apple has previously sued Amazon, in March, asserting that the title ‘App Store’ for Android software is kept illegally to seek more developers. Whereas Amazon had a very consistent stance as it asserts that "app store" is a very generic term.

Amazon informed the media that "Mac download store features an install-less download process where the customer gets just the product without any unwanted extras, making for faster and easier purchases. Plus, downloads are conveniently backed up in your Games and Software Library where you can download an unlimited number of times for personal use." The most eye-catching Mac downloads in the store, offered in the beginning; include Office Mac for home and businesses, Aspyr's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Individual Software's Logo Designer, and H&R Block At Home Deluxe Federal and State eFile for 2010.

The Court Demands Samsung to Provide Its Product Details to Apple

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Just last month Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung, accusing it to be replicating its popular products like iPhone and iPad design. The products of Sumsung under question specifically include the Galaxy lineup. Samsung reacted with another countersuit accusing rather Apple to be infringing with iPhone and iPad on its various patents, also warning Apple to stop the production of these products along with an agreed compensation.

Samsung has straightforwardly lost the case and according to a court filing of 18^th May, the federal judge Lucy Koh has announced that Samsung has 30 days to present its product details of Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Infuse 4G, and DROID Charge to Apple. After looking at the detailed plans of Samsung, Apple will then decide whether it demands an early injunction or not. Koh also clarified, in advance, that since Samsung has also started public advertising these products, it shall not be hesitative in providing the details to Apple.

Koh did however attempt to remain unbiased in her judgment as she also claimed that “Although the Court expresses no opinion on the merits of Apple’s claims, the Court notes that Apple has produced images of Samsung products and other evidence that provide a reasonable basis for Apple’s belief that Samsung’s new products are designed to mimic Apple’s products.” The official documents claim that this access is only provided to Apple, if it only wants to “take early action to stop the allegedly infringing activity before Samsung’s new products become established in the marketplace.” Furthermore the court requested that Apple deserves a “limited expedite discovery.”

Microsoft Completely Upgrades Its Phone Software, Adding New List of Handset Makers

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This Tuesday Microsoft Corp. released an update of its Windows phone software, this time encompassing numerable new features, aimed to help it catch up with the lead gathered by its rivals like Google Inc. and Apple Inc.  This new software update was code-named Mango before its release and will be debuting in new Windows phones till start of this autumn. The existing Windows phones will also be updated with this software beforehand, though no particular date is provided yet.

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This new updated software was initially announced almost eight months after the launch of first Windows Phone 7, promised to be powered with 500 brand new features. Highlighted by the features like Internet Explorer 9 as the default mobile browser, detailed integration of both Twitter and LinkedIn feeds and programmed Facebook check-ins along with the a great market of more than 17,000 downloadable applications. This new updated software is basically going to increase the level of distinctive "live tiles" of Microsoft; this means that the users will be able to see real-time information on their home screen without having to start any application. Moreover, it is also promised to house better processors allowing multi-tasking where many applications can run together simultaneously.

The New Simple Touch Reader of Barnes & Noble Apparently Beats Kindle 3 in New Features

Barnes & Noble made an official announcement on Tuesday, declaring the launch of its latest version in the line of Nook e-readers. This new nook device, called ‘Simple Touch Reader’ is promised to be relatively smaller than its preceding version, housed with a black-and-white E-Ink touch screen device, having a battery life of almost two months.

Cover via Amazon

This new ‘Simple Touch Reader’ is a very large step and a major upgrade from the previous models in the Nook line. It is such an advancement that it even beats the much popular, Amazon’s Kindle 3, in some aspects. Simple Touch Readers simply has a touch screen, making it actually button-less, which saves time for powering the device on/off from backside like in Kindle 3.  Secondly it has almost twice the battery time, added with a 1.5 inches shorter size (5 x 6.5 inches) and it is also lighter in weight by one ounce (7.5 ounces). Lastly, it also promises a less time in page-turning delay. Both the devices are sold at equal price of $139, having the same built-in Wi-Fi capability and display screen of 6-inch each.

A "Payment Processor" In the Online Poker Case Confesses In Front Of U.S. Court

A resident of Illinois confessed on Monday, in front of the federal court, accepting his help in allowing the large online poker websites to duck the U.S. gambling laws. He was processing millions of dollars through bank payments from his home, in Illinois, to Costa Rica while he deceived the banks regarding the nature of these transactions. The person involved in this crime, nicknamed "payment processor," is actually 41-year-old Bradley Franzen, who pled guilty in New York. He has confessed the criminal charges he was charged with i.e. conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and being part of operating an illegal gambling business. Experts have calculated that, regardless of his confession, he will be most probably imprisoned for at least 30 years time.

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Franzen is only one of the total eleven individuals indicted by the federal prosecutors in New York last month; the authorities immediately apprehended all the involved Internet domain names as a reaction, including Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Online gambling has been kept illegal in the United States since 2006. Overall the charges indicted by the prosecutors accuses the companies for appointing people to help them avoid the regulatory authorities and banks, while the processed $3 billion worth of payments illegally out of the country.

Franzen who was currently residing in Illinois also owns a home in Costa Rica, he confessed in front of the court informing that he was contacted by an Internet poker company back in 2009. He declared that "I was aware that most U.S. banks did not process the payments ... and I understood U.S. law prohibits it." Upon the inquiry by the U.S. Magistrate Judge, Kevin Nathaniel Fox, regarding the amount of money involved, Franzen added "I do understand in general terms that it was millions of dollars, but I don't know how much." He also told the court that he carried out majority of his work from his residence in Costa Rica.

IBM Surpasses The Market Value Of Microsoft Corp. After Long Fifteen Years

 International Business Machines has just surpassed its very old and traditional rival, Microsoft Corp., in the evaluation of market value of both companies. Microsoft Corp. had kept its considerable dominance over IBM since it first surpassed over the market price of IBM in April 1996. This was a very eye opening unfolding of the time, as this swipe in the market value of the world's two most popular technology companies was not foreseen and happened very abruptly. IBM was ruling the entire computer industry for decades till it hired Microsoft, a very small company than, for providing it with an operating system for its launch of a new line of PC’s in early 1980s.

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Bill Gates was pioneering this revolution as his company undoubtedly dominated whole of the computer industry, exercising his vision which stated; “software is much more valuable and powerful than hardware.” This envisioned Microsoft Corp. as it continued much profitable success leading to a better market value compared to IBM; by the end of 1999, the fortunes had fluctuated to such extend that that Microsoft's market value was three folds more than that of IBM. The rise of Seattle-based Microsoft led many market analysts to believe that IBM is no more than an old-fashioned, immobile giant which failed to keep the pace in the computing revolution.

However, right after such contrast, since 2000, history repeated itself and this time in an up-side down manner, as the stock of Microsoft Corp. halted their steep rise. Many investors doubted its aptitude for moving any further than the already introduced advancements, like Windows operating system and Office suite of software. Whereas, filling in the spaces, other relatively younger rivals, such as Google Inc and Facebook, took over its place and had an almost similar boosting increase in value.