A short time after Apple delivered its map app and had to issue an apology for its perceived poor quality, Apple and map app maker Waze had a sit-down to figure out if it made sense for Apple to make an acquisition. But now Facebook and Waze are in supposed "deep" discussions for Facebook to make the buy and this is a deal with potentially huge positives for both companies. Waze, if you aren't familiar with it, is an awesome mapping application -- we've been Wazers since July 2012 and can't imagine life without it. For whatever reasons, which we've detailed, Apple didn't make the buy and Waze has continued on its merry way. If you are not Google or Microsoft you should probably be hoping for the deal to become real.
That leaves an opening for us to segue back to our old friend Dell -- which continues to drift along in more ways than one. The business itself continues to head up-river minus the proverbial paddle, and the same can be said of the efforts going on to either make Dell private -- through either the previously announced leveraged buyout deal from Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, or through a different deal being proposed by Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management. We've been appalled by the notion that Michael Dell and his Dell board minions might be able to steal Dell the company away from its shareholders - and every week a new reason why the Dell deal should not happen comes to light. Take for example that $2 billion dollar loan from Microsoft…
In contrast to Dell's ongoing woes, another once-powerful tech company that has also long been in the doldrums, Sony, actually managed to have a decent quarter and full year, financially speaking. The company has finally managed to earn itself a profit after many endless quarters of almost fatal-looking losses. Is there a real turnaround to be had here? Also on the rebound is Groupon. You remember what recently happened with Groupon - its founder and CEO Andrew Mason was driven out of the company due to revenue problems and a plummeting stock price. Well, no sooner does he leave the company than Groupon posts a financial rebound! We'll never know if Mason's firing had anything to do with the turnaround or if it was always in the cards and Mason just got screwed.
Last week we took note of iTune's 10th anniversary - a stellar achievement both for iTunes itself and for the favorable disruption it brought with it. This week we have another 10th anniversary - LinkedIn has hit the big 10. In its own way the company has also caused much good disruption, and who among us in the business world can live without it in today's world? We know we can't. Further, many consider LinkedIn to be the best run of the current crop of companies to have recently launched an IPO.
It may not be common knowledge but programmers and developers are still for the most part male. It's just the way it is, although we aren't suggesting that there aren't substantial numbers of female devs around. This week a certain 17 year old not only added her name to that list of female developers but she also won the grand prize in a recent programming contest with an app that most of us who hang out on Twitter will immediately want in hand. Dubbed Twivo by its creator, Jennie Lamere, the app makes sure that you never see a tweet containing a TV spoiler.
Finally, we wrap up by taking note that Nokia's next, next new thing will be unveiled next week at a media event being staged in London on May 14, 2013. Though we are not entirely sure that Nokia will be announcing its new flagship - the Lumia 928 - the odds are greatly in favor of this being the case. Both Nokia and Verizon Wireless - to which the device will be exclusive for a period of time going out the door - have been dropping much more than simple, quiet and subtle hints about it. From the initial looks of things it should prove to be a potential blockbuster. For one thing, it won't be ridiculously oversized. For another we can expect the 928 to deliver even more in the way of low light camera capabilities and outstanding image stabilization technology. It may even boast infinite-focus capability. We can't wait to get our hands on it.
Next week we'll be heading off to San Francisco for Google's I/O - its worldwide developer conference. We anticipate an exciting week, and we'll be writing from the event every day to keep everyone in the loop.
Until then, have a great weekend!
