Good times, bad times

Who's on top of the world, and who down in the dumps, in the channel this week?

GOOD TIMES

BlackBerry

Job creation and growth are perhaps not the first things that spring to mind when thinking of troubled smartphone-maker BlackBerry.

But all that is a thing of the past now, according to its chief executive John Chen, who told staff in an internal email seen by Reuters that things are looking up. He said he is confident that the company is on the mend, so much so that some jobs could even be created soon.

Reports that Chen celebrated by serenading his staff with D:Ream hit and Labour party anthem Things Can Only Get Better were unconfirmed as CRN went to press.

Education VARs

The summer holidays might be a time for children and teachers to relax, but the IT providers supplying schools are as busy as ever.
Eight resellers found themselves on a schools licensing framework which will see them provide a range of Adobe and Microsoft software to schools and academies across the UK.

The CPC said its framework will give schools great-value kit, but we're not sure using a bargain version of Photoshop will be much consolation to kids on their first day back in September.

Storage sales staff

Sales staff have been promised the prospect of a £1m annual pay packet at next-generation storage reseller Epaton. The newbie - whose name spells ‘no tape' backwards - formally launched this month.

And according to its co-founder Jonathan Lassman, there is loadsamoney to be made from a storage sector currently being given a good shake-up by new technologies such as flash, big data and software-defined.

Lassman claimed he handed out £200k pay packets at his last firm, NTS. With storage deals typically five times larger than security deals, Lassman said the prospect of an Epaton sales bod eventually enjoying a £1m year is not unrealistic. Who said there wasn't money in storage?

BAD TIMES

Microsoft fanboys

Microsoft fanboy(s) and girl(s) were dealt a devastating double blow this week, as a brace of corporate filings appeared to reveal that the vendor giant has scaled back its retail ambitions and is ditching its plans to release a Surface Mini device.

First, a US 8-k filing revealed that the vendor has reached "a decision not to ship a new [Surface] form factor", meaning any devotee(s) of Microsoft's tablet are unlikely to be able to get their hands on a slightly smaller version of the device.

Then came news that the vendor had dissolved the Microsoft Retail Store United Kingdom Limited entity it incorporated in 2012. The vendor had been widely tipped to begin opening high-street outlets in this country last year, but none have materialised.

The Dell grandchildren

Not content with spending a load of his own moolah taking the firm that bears his name back into private ownership, Michael Dell has now dipped into his personal piggy bank once again to invest a "multimillion-dollar" sum in video management system outfit Eagle Eye Networks.

The splurge was made by MSD Capital, the private investment vehicle of the Dell family. Eagle Eye CEO Dean Drako claimed his latest and most high-profile investor "continues to be at the top of his game in driving technology innovation".

Which will bring much comfort to any nervous heirs watching their potential inheritance dwindle.

Tablet giants

If Apple and Samsung thought their heavyweight status was enough to maintain their control over the tablet market, they would be very much mistaken. That's if IDC figures are anything to go by.

This time last year, the duo shared the majority of the global tablet market, taking a 51.8 per cent share between them. But in Q2, that figure slipped to just 44.1 per cent after a tranche of smaller firms jumped aboard the tablet bandwagon. The "others" category, made up of those firms outside the top five, saw its market share grow to 44.4 per cent - more than Apple's and Samsung's combined - compared with just 37 per cent a year ago.