Apple’s revenue to reach $200 bn mark soon (USA)
A group of researches believe that Apple Inc. can keep posting sales growth of more than 50% in the next two years as a mobile applications boom fuels demand for devices such as the iPad.
According to researchers, Apple sold almost 15 million iPads in its debut year and more than 90 million iPhones in its four-year lifespan. Demand for the devices has spawned a market for downloadable apps that let users shop, work, play games and handle other tasks on the go. That in turn keeps customers buying Apple’s products, and puts the company on course for higher revenue than International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
It is also expected that the company will be bigger than IBM next year, and they’ll be bigger than HP the year after that. At current growth rates, they’re going to be a $200 billion revenue company.
Hewlett-Packard had sales of $126 billion in the year that ended in October and IBM’s revenue was $99.9 billion last year, making them the largest technology companies, respectively, by sales. Apple ranks No. 1 by market capitalization.
Tech Mahindra to begin Bharti’s African outsourcing services
India’s Tech Mahindra Ltd. expects to start offering call center services to Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s operations in six African countries from Feb. 1.
Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel had selected Tech Mahindra–along with International Business Machines Corp. and Spanco Ltd.–to provide business process outsourcing (BPO), services to the carrier’s operations in 16 African countries.
According to Sujit Bakshi, President, Corporate Affairs and BPO, under the five-year deal, Tech Mahindra will offer core customer service functions such as call centers and back offices in Zambia, Gabon, Ghana, Malawi, Congo DRC, Congo B. The deal didn’t involve making any upfront payment to account for cost savings that may accrue to Bharti.
Tech Mahindra’s BPO division accounted for 5.8% of the company’s US$990.06 million total revenue in the last fiscal year ended March 31. The segment employed 8,489 people at the end of the September quarter.
Bharti entered the African market through a $9 billion acquisition of Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co.’s assets in the continent in a bid to expand its business to offset the effects of stiff competition in India. The company has about 45 million subscribers in Africa, where the average telecom penetration is lower than India, and aims to achieve 100 million subscribers by 2012.
According to Bakshi, as part of the deal, Tech Mahindra will take over about 2,000 employees on the rolls of Zain and on contract and hire more staff locally to offer services in the six countries. Zain has about 4,500 employees in the 16 African countries, including sales personnel. Tech Mahindra is also targeting additional revenue streams from the telecom operator as it adds new subscribers and from new lines of services that Zain will offer.
As per the contract, which runs in two phases, Tech Mahindra will operate from Zain’s premises in the first phase and will take over the premises and also operate from its own centers in the second phase.
He added, the company will also invest in new hardware such as desktop computers and take over Zain’s existing hardware at depreciated value, depending on its condition.
IBM to provide cloud computing to SK Telecom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Winning the battle against four of its largest rivals, International Business Machines Corp. will operate a cloud computing platform for SK Telecom Co., Ltd. As per the deal, IBM will provide the infrastructure to SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecoms operator with more than 50% of the market.
The networks will be used by SK Telecom and its business partners to test and publish telecoms applications in order for the applications to later to be rolled out on its networks for consumers.
IBM beat Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA) in order to win the contract but the value of the deal was not revealed. The technology giant has focused recently on building out infrastructure in Asia for cloud computing.
Cloud Computing has tightened its grip recently especially with smaller customers as it enables significant cost savings.
Virgin Mobile, IBM enter IT service agreement (USA)
Virgin Mobile USA LP has agreed to hire International Business Machines Corp. to handle information technology operations and develop new applications.
Under the Friday agreement, New York-based IBM will hire 44 Virgin Mobile employees at current pay levels for two years.
The companies expect a five-year initial term for the agreement, from May 15, 2008, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. New Jersey-based Virgin Mobile can extend the agreement, which also includes engineering services, for one year. The agreement will provide undisclosed IT-related operational cost savings and help the company compete in new product and service delivery, according to a release.
Virgin Mobile will pay IBM through fixed and variable charges, the latter of which will change depending on Virgin Mobile’s need for services. Fees for operations and infrastructure will depend on factors such as the number of servers or workstations needed, the filing said. Network operations center, application development and certain other fees will be hourly. Charges will be adjusted beginning in 2010 based on general economic indicators.
Financial terms of the agreement are not being released.
Virgin Mobile can cancel the agreement with 180 days’ notice plus a fee and deferred transition costs. It may also have to pay wind-down charges for canceling third-party agreements, ending leases or firing employees. The charges wouldn’t apply if IBM didn’t meet certain service levels or violated the agreement.
If either party ended the agreement, Virgin Mobile could ask IBM to provide continuing services for one year to 15 months.
Virgin Mobile plans to file the agreement with the SEC in conjunction with its second-quarter financial report.
On June 27 , Virgin Mobile agreed to buy Helio for about $39 million in equity.
United Kingdom-based Virgin Group and Sprint Corp., the predecessor of Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp, each invested as much as $150 million in mid-2002 to form Virgin Mobile.
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