service

Marketcetera, one of the coolest open-source companies I've seen in a long time

It is fascinating to see how people are using open source. I'm part of the "old guard" of open source, I suppose, delivering an open-source alternative to a tired market ripe for commoditization and innovation. But other companies, like OpenAds (open-source advertising server), Path Intelligence (tracking shopper flow based on the open-source GNU radio), Chumby (open-source consumer electronics/hardware), etc. are taking open source into new markets.

Today, I was fortunate to meet one of the most interesting open-source companies I've seen in a long, long time: Marketcetera. Marketcetera provides an open-source trading platform that hedge funds and others use to process and deliver trades through a brokerage to an exchange (like NASDAQ). It's like proprietary, expensive FlexTrade, only not proprietary...or expensive.

The market for this kind of platform is not huge today, as the founders, Toli Kuznets and Graham Miller, told me today (roughly $500 million for custom development, but probably not including packaged software like FlexTrade). But with more and more trading moving from people to algorithmic processes (30-40% in the US today, jumping to 50-60% by the end of the decade), the market will grow accordingly.

Besides, I can think of a range of other uses for this sort of technology beyond hedge funds.… Read more

Pop goes the presidential SUV

Need to take out a book depository? This U.S. Secret Service Urban Assault SUV should do the trick.

The GMC-mounted mini-gun accompanies the presidential cavalcade, at least here at home. Apparently it's not a welcome guest in some host countries. England, for instance, asked the prez to leave his miniguns at home. Note the rotating turret.

Look out, PayPal: Amazon has a new payment service

The days of PayPal's dominance over casual payments online are changing rapidly. A little over a year ago, Google unveiled its Checkout service, which has become an increasingly popular way to purchase items from various online retailers using a single account. Today, Amazon.com is unveiling its own payment program that lets Amazon.com users purchase items or services using their Amazon.com account credentials and billing information.

The new program is called "Flexible Payment Service", or FPS, and is launching with an invite-only API for developers who want to integrate the new payment service. What does … Read more

Microsoft's Ozzie opens up on Internet 'cloud' services

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie provided a fresh take of the technical components at the heart of its online services push on Thursday.

Speaking at the Microsoft Financial Analysts Day, Ozzie spelled out in greatest detail yet the work he has led on "cloud" Internet services.

During the next 12 to 18 months, Microsoft will introduce software and hosted services designed to enhance its current product line and derive more revenue from advertising-supported Web services, Ozzie said.

Echoing comments he made in an interview with CNET News.com earlier this year, he said Microsoft is preparing a … Read more

Amazon luring new customers with Web Services business

After Amazon.com reported a 250 percent leap in second-quarter profits on Tuesday, CEO Jeff Bezos plugged its Amazon Web Services business and shined some light on the company's rationale for continued investment in it.

In response to a question from a financial analyst about the traction on the company's hosted computing and e-commerce Web services, Bezos argued for Amazon's long-term commitment to the nascent business.

"So we're very optimistic about the long-term potential. It's still very early, but we're working very hard on this, and we think it's, in the long-term, … Read more

Maybe the software (products) business is dying, after all

Savio has a point, much as I don't want to admit it. However, it might not be the point he's thinking that he's making. Or, rather, the data points to an entirely different point.

Wayne Waddoups of SAIC sent this slide deck along to me from a presentation delivered by Michael Cusumanoa (MIT) at Carnegie Mellon University, and I found it fascinating. The data clearly shows a (strong) decline in enterprise software sales over the last few years, with the only exceptions being "hits" and "platform leaders." In other words, those who get lucky and those who have built a massive lock-in ecosystem.

As shown, software is clearly on the decline, while services revenue is on a strong upswing. This, as Cusumanoa posits, may well lead the industry to invest in the next big area of innovation: Services innovation.… Read more

Strong services revenue lifts IBM's second quarter

IBM on Wednesday reported strong revenue and income growth for second quarter 2007, in a sign that the company has improved profitability in its giant professional services division.

Excluding a one-time gain from the sale of its printing division, IBM reported diluted earnings of $1.50 per share, beating analysts' expectations by 3 cents.

A 10 percent increase in Global Services helped fuel second-quarter revenue of $23.8 billion. Income rose 8 percent to $2.2 billion, excluding an $81 million windfall from the sale of its printing division.

IBM Software--a crucial part of its revenue growth strategy as IBM … Read more

The REAL ultimate music recommendation smackdown

If you were paying attention to Crave back in March, you may recall my first expedition to South by Southwest. While I was there, I attended a panel titled The Ultimate Music Recommendation Smackdown, which turned out to be much more letdown than smackdown. Based on the description of the panel, I was expecting a competition of sorts between various Internet-based music recommendation engines, such as Pandora and Last.fm. Unfortunately, there was no real competing and, well, that's just kind of sad, don't you think? Me, too. So I decided to take things into my own hands … Read more

Sprint to offer Loopt friend-tracking service

Sprint Nextel said Tuesday it will use Loopt's "friend finding" technology to let subscribers track their friends.

Loopt, which also offers its location-based service on Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint, uses Global Positioning System chips in phones to allow subscribers to see where their friends are located.

To address privacy concerns, Loopt subscribers must give other Loopt users permission to track them. Subscribers also can hide from anyone in their "buddy" list at any time.

Loopt has been available on Boost Mobile since last year. And earlier this year the company said it had … Read more

Microsoft COO: We're still figuring out Software Plus Services

DENVER--Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said Thursday that there was a good reason that partners complained last year that the company was short on details on its "Software Plus Services" strategy.

"The reason we didn't share it with you is we didn't have it figured it out," Turner said. And although the company announced more details this week, Turner said the company is still trying to figure out just how to add services.

"We're continuing to re-evaluate, re-look at, re-examine the opportunities," he said in a wrap-up keynote speech at … Read more