JSE-listed technology group Altech saw its profit fall for the six months ended 31 August 2010. Releasing its interim results on Tuesday, the company reported a decrease in headline earnings per share to 206c from 292c a year earlier.
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has finally shown its hand in the tablet computer market, taking aim at Apple’s iPad with the PlayBook, a device with a 7-inch touch screen running the new BlackBerry Tablet OS. Aimed squarely at the corporate market – and thereby differentiating itself somewhat from the iPad – the PlayBook weighs 400g, has a screen resolution of 1024×600, sports a 1GHz dual-core processor, and supports true symmetric multiprocessing.
Gijima’s top line has slid 2,4% in the past year, reflecting tougher trading condition in the SA’s technology industry, says analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. Growth in managed service revenue did not quite compensate for a decline in professional service revenue.
Sub-Saharan Africa will soon be drowning in international bandwidth. France Telecom’s Orange has announced an extension to the Lower Indian Ocean Network (Lion) cable, adding yet more capacity to the east coast of Africa.
Communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has not been reinstated to her position, according to a statement issued on Monday by the office of communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. The statement says Harold Wesso will continue as acting director-general for now. This is despite the fact that Mohlala returned to work on Monday, only to find she had been locked out of her office.
Communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala is set to meet with public service & administration minister Richard Baloyi at 4.30pm on Monday in a bid to resolve a tense standoff over her job. Mohlala is threatening legal action if the meeting with Baloyi does not lead to an outcome satisfactory to her and if the communications department does not unlock her office.
Ousted communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has been locked out of her office at the department of communications despite being granted access to the building in Pretoria this morning. In the latest dramatic development, Mohlala has given the department half an hour — until about 12pm today, Monday — to open her office.
The Mobile TV Consortium has been granted a licence to test the Korean standard for mobile television, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), in SA. The consortium, controlled by businessman Richard Moloko’s Moloko Investment Group and backed by high-profile shareholders including former Telkom chairman Shirley Lue Arnold, says it expects to have a service ready for pilot in about a month.
Investment in information technology will be a key focus area for US retailing giant Wal-Mart if it proceeds with its nonbinding offer to buy SA retail group Massmart in a R30bn deal. Massmart, which owns Makro and other discount stores, told shareholders on Monday morning that Wal-Mart Stores had made a preliminary, nonbinding proposal, which could lead to the world’s largest retailer acquiring the JSE-listed group for R148/share.
Amid the madness of the iPhone 4 launching in SA, Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Candice Jones and Steven Ambrose gather to discuss how touch-phone competitors are stacking up against Apple, Pirate Bay, digital photography and much, much more