500,000+ Affected... Maybe Yours... Maybe Your Customers… What SPs Need to Know, Need to Do

Heartbleed, the newly discovered Internet flaw breaking the heart of the web industry and giving heart attacks to consumers, affects a half a million or more web sites. That's right, at least 500,000+ affected in this colossal open-source failure.

Why do we say "affected" and not "infected?"

Engineers working for the Finland-based security firm Codenomicon were exploring new features for their new security test software when they discovered the bug-heard-'round-the-world that affects websites that use OpenSSL, a security software that supposedly protected users' data and passwords.

The end of Windows XP is also the end of everything we grew up with in the Personal Computing business.

We're also saying goodbye to the PC as the preferred hardware for the average user, Windows as the standard operating system and the power of Wintel in our business lives.

Obviously, the death of XP is an arranged suicide, with Microsoft attendant in all the funeral details.

The commercial advantage, for Microsoft and its partners, is that this should spur sales for Windows 8 (and upcoming Windows 9).

How do you feel about the PC industry today?

Our Editor-in-Chief Bob Snyder discusses the PC industry with the UK dealer group of Synaxon.

Agree or disagree but at least Bob will help you focus on what it means today to be a distributor or retailer in consumer IT.

Enjoy!

Here's a festive thought for the end of 2013: What if Google made a free Chromebox?

Google has made it BIG by expertly giving away its technology to earn an audience.

Google Search, of course.  But think about all the Google products you might know, love and use.

Do you use Gmail? That's free...

Google Maps? Yep, free, too.

Google Docs? Free..

Google Talk? Sure, free.

Google+? OK,maybe you don't use this yet but soon Helpouts will pull you in.  Yes, it's free.

YouTube, Picassa, Chrome Continue reading...

Remember the famous high tech book, Crossing the Chasm?

Perhaps there should be a new book for high tech companies to follow: Sitting on a Precipice.

That might be appropriate because our "old" industry leaders in the PC business now sit on a precipice. For some, things look pretty grim. For others, it will soon look even grimmer-- if they don't act now.

A prime example of inaction can be drawn from the mobile industry where RIM has taken Blackberry into a free fall that will only end in a splat.

For Microsoft, it's a different story. There are actions that will be taken.

Here's one example of how Microsoft might look in a year or two.

First, meet the new CEO.  Yes, Stephen Elop...the loyal Microsoftie who insisted on Windows at Nokia until they had no other choice but look for an acquirer. Consider the CEO job as Elop's reward for bringing Nokia into the fold (because that's the way the Microsoft Board is looking at it).

The only people happy with this news will be the local system builders...

Microsoft's digital crimes division tells the court malware is being installed on PC machines in China before they’re even released from the factories.

What? That's right, your customers who import direct from China may be buying Trojan Horses. Even European importers who bring in unknown Chinese brands could be affected-- unless the importer (like many larger distributors already do) sets up his own security control. Continue reading...

Under attack in the mobile category, Radio Shack struggles to find its place with today's consumers.

Its deal with 1500+ Target stores (the store-within-a-store that sells mainly postpaid wireless sales and limited higher margin accessory sales) created a loss of $25.4 million in Q3 and $38.2 million so far this year.  The company said it may pull out of Target stores if its contract terms aren’t renegotiated.

But that won't fix the bigger problem. RadioShack's Q3 loss of $47 million (versus a profit of $300,000 a year ago) came as

total sales fell from $1.03 billion to $1 billion. Same-store sales declined 1.6%.

The "Signature" segment accounts for about 30% of sales, which includes accessories (including mobile-related products such as headphones) and power and technical products and generates healthy margins. Sales growth is in the low single digits.

"War is not a good life, but it's still a life, "said Captain Kirk in Star Trek.

A new captain is on the bridge at Intel.  Kirk Skaugen is now captain of the Intel PC Client Group and his job is to lead the Enterprise... to re-invent the PC.

Over years the PC world built an empire...destroyed many other worlds of technology  (e.g., the electronic typewriter, fax machine, desktop calculator, cash register...and more).

While at its peak, the PC industry sought to consolidate its conquered lands by inventing platforms like internet. Like the mythical Trojan Horse, the internet, built by the IT industry and harnessed by the PC industry to expand its empire...succeeded in a life of its own. Once grown, the Internet supplanted the PC and its power.

Internet hit the PC with so much force that it knocked the PC from the very center of the IT universe to its current status as just another planet in orbit...or perhaps as far away as even a moon of that planet.