Good times, bad times
Who has had a fortnight to remember and who has had one to forget?
Good times
Reuniting friends
Channel socialite Jon Bunyard is hoping to find all his pals from the good ol' days back when Computacenter had its own distribution arm (remember that?) by launching his own version of Friends Reunited.
Called CCDReunited, the site will connect all former stakeholders of CCD and give them a forum for discussion, arranging meetings and generally having fun. And if it all works out, he could sell the venture for a ridiculous nine-figure sum to a TV station with more money than sense. Kerching!
Wearable technology
Just as the world was beginning to get its head around smartwatches and smartglasses, a flurry of new wearable technology gadgets has burst on the scene and they're crazier than ever.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas wearable tech was all the rage, with health and fitness emerging as a key market.
Although not exactly wearable, one firm proudly unveiled the world's first-ever Bluetooth-enabled smart toothbrush, which not only monitors how well you're brushing your teeth but also, according to the firm, provides "a fun experience". Sounds like a real thrill.
Fresh starts
Usually the new year's resolution to go to the gym or smile more peters out within a week, but two of the UK's top disties started 2014 by paying more than just lip service to the concept of change by overhauling their top management.
Avnet welcomed in a new UK managing director, while Midwich appointed four new directors as old hands Darren Lewitt (pictured) and Alex Ward stepped down. Lewitt told CRN it was time to realise the value of his near 30 per cent shareholding after 23 years "eating, breathing, and living Midwich".
Which means the last time Lewitt took a breath, Margaret Thatcher had only just been ousted from power and Chesney Hawkes ruled the airwaves.
Bad times
Doom and gloom
Slashing sales forecasts and cutting jobs are just so last year. It seems the dawn of 2014 has brought the industry a fresh dose of enthusiasm, wistanding outth analysts and economists lining up to shout about the rosy future that lies ahead.
Gartner hailed a new beginning for devices and predicted a 4.3 per cent boost in spending this year, and Forrester said 2014 would be one of modest growth overall. Woo, and indeed, hoo.
Even George Osborne found room for positivity in his new-year address to the nation. He said although more hefty austerity measures are on the way, Britain was "on the rise". We admire your chutzpah, Ozzie, but you'll forgive us if we believe it only when we see it.
RSA Confererence
The biggest security industry get-together on the planet has faced a deluge of bad press in recent weeks as high-profile speakers have pulled out following allegations that RSA colluded with the NSA.
The EMC-owned vendor is accused of taking a $10m payment in exchange for including an NSA-authored "back door" in its encryption products.
The vendor was swift to reject the allegation that it had "engaged in any project with the intention of weakening RSA's products", but many remain unconvinced by the wording of its denial. Six speakers had reportedly cancelled their appearance as we went to press, including Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.
"I've given up waiting for RSA to fess up to the truth," he said, in an email to his wife.
The PC market
The PC market has appeared so frequently in Bad Times in the past 18 months that it's started leaving a toothbrush and some clean socks here. And, after an annus that was as horribilis as could be in 2013, this year is not looking any brighter for the old-skool client compute market.
Some 278 million desktops and laptops will be shipped this year, Gartner predicts, representing a seven per cent annual decline. But the wider device market - including phones, tablets, phablets, tabones, mobilets, celltabs, phabmobs, portacells, and tabamalaphonilets - will be flat year on year, compared with a 9.9 per cent decline in 2013.
So there may still be a chance of promotion from ‘bad times' to ‘ambivalent times'.