Technology - Google News

Microsoft will let government clients run its Azure cloud technology on their own servers
Report: Apple is making its own high-end noise-cancelling headphones
A cheaper MacBook Air makes perfect business sense for Apple

Microsoft will let government clients run its Azure cloud technology on their own servers

Posted: 05 Mar 2018 07:28 AM PST

Microsoft on Monday said it will soon make it possible for government clients to run its cloud technology on their own servers as part of a concerted effort to make Azure more appealing to local and federal agencies.

The pairing of Azure Stack, Microsoft's localized cloud product, and Azure Government, the government-tailored version of Microsoft's cloud, comes as competition against Amazon for major clients in the public sector ramps up.

The new offering, which will be made available in mid-2018, is designed to appeal to governments and agencies with needs for on-premise servers, such as in a military operation or in an embassy abroad, said Tom Keane, Microsoft Azure's head of global infrastructure.

"Quite literally we've designed Azure Stack with the scenario of a submarine in mind," Keane told Reuters.

The cloud computing market is forecast to grow to $74.7 billion in 2018, up nearly 36 percent from 2017, according to research firm Canalys. Amazon Web Services is the leader in the market with a 32 percent share while Microsoft is in second place with 14 percent, according to Canalys estimates for the fourth quarter of 2017.

In the public sector, AWS has taken an early lead with a prominent client base that includes the CIA, but Microsoft has been closing that gap as it builds out its Azure business and leverages its legacy relationships with government agencies, analysts said.

"AWS had a head start with some of their early investments in public cloud, but Microsoft has since made some aggressive investments and largely closed the gap with AWS," said Rick Holgate, analyst with Gartner. "Microsoft also offers a more advanced and robust set of business productivity software than AWS."

Offering an on-premise version of cloud computing is appealing to government clients that want the benefits of this new technology but need to keep data locally for compliance or logistical reasons, said Josh Stella, chief executive of Fugue, a startup that makes automation software for the cloud that helps government clients keep their systems in compliance with regulations.

"Having that option of being able to build your tooling around cloud infrastructure but being able to run it all locally expedites the opportunity to move to the cloud," Stella said.

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Report: Apple is making its own high-end noise-cancelling headphones

Posted: 05 Mar 2018 07:44 AM PST

Enlarge/ Bose's QuietComfort 35 would likely be in the crosshairs of Apple's reportedly high-end noise-cancelling headphones.
Bose

Apple is developing a pair of high-end wireless noise-cancelling headphones and could launch them as soon as the end of this year, according to a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Debby Wu.

The report corroborates a late February memo from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Gurman, who, like Kuo, has a long track record of reporting the existence of Apple devices before they're released, says the headphones will be of the over-the-ear variety and would compete with similar pairs from Bose.

Bloomberg says the headphones will also include "similar wireless pairing functionality" to Apple's AirPods earbuds, suggesting they will likely include Apple's W1 wireless chip (or its successor) and connect to iPhones and iPads more seamlessly than other devices. Given their over-the-ear design, they will likely sound superior to the AirPods as well.

Interestingly, the report says the headphones will bear the Apple logo. That would ostensibly put them in direct competition with the company's Beats by Dre subsidiary, which currently sells its own pair of noise-cancelling headphones for $350. Those headphones already take advantage of Apple's W1 chip.

How much the new headphones will cost is still unknown, but Bloomberg and KGI's emphasis on Apple's "high-end" ambitions suggests they will not come cheap. It's worth noting that many of the current top options in the wireless noise-cancelling market are pricey as well, though: Bose's QuietComfort 35 go for $350, while Sennheiser's HD1 Wireless initially retailed for $500.

All that said, Bloomberg notes that development of the noise-cancelling headphones has not gone as smoothly as planned, likening Apple's troubles to the issues it had developing its HomePod speaker. The company has gone through multiple redesigns of the product, according to the report, and there's still a chance it could kill the device entirely.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

If the headphones do arrive as expected, though, they would solidify Apple's seemingly renewed interest in consumer audio. Though the HomePod only just hit the market last month, the AirPods appear to be a hit. Apple does not directly report AirPods sales, instead rolling them into its "Other Products" category with the Apple Watch, Apple TV, Beats headphones, and other accessories. But that segment brought in $5.49 billion in sales in Q1 2018, according to Apple, a 37 percent year-over-year increase. While that number was no doubt boosted by the launch of a new Apple TV and Apple Watch, Apple said that its wearable products, which include the AirPods, jumped by 70 percent year-over-year.

Reports from Gurman and Kuo last month said that Apple is also working on new AirPods models, which would likely include easier Siri activation, an improved wireless chip, and water resistance.

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A cheaper MacBook Air makes perfect business sense for Apple

Posted: 05 Mar 2018 06:36 AM PST

A recent KGI Securities note said Apple is planning to launch a cheaper 13-inch MacBook Air during the second quarter of this year. It makes perfect sense for Apple to make this move, and I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Apple currently only offers a $999 MacBook Air that, despite upgrades to its processor, hasn't changed drastically in years. It still has the same low-resolution display, for example. Apple's next most affordable MacBook is the $1,299 model, which has a sharper but smaller 12-inch display, only has a single USB-C port and is a bit more cramped to use.

There's a market for a more affordable MacBook Air, including me. Last year, for example, I purchased the $1,299 MacBook but found that it was too tiny for me to use comfortably for work, even though I loved the compact size for travel. I ended up returning it and buying a Lenovo laptop with a 4K touch screen, several USB ports, an SD card slot and larger display for the same price.

I would have purchased a MacBook Air, but I felt that $999 was too much compared with similar notebooks running Windows 10. If Apple launches a notebook somewhere in the $799 to $999 range, maybe keeps some of the legacy hardware including the SD slot and additional USB ports that are still found on the current MacBook Air, I'd be all in.

Plus, with dozens of new Windows laptops that are premium and still cost under $1,000, Apple is losing out on potential customers who want to save money but still want a high-end product. Apple used to offer an affordable option with its 11.6-inch MacBook Air, but it killed that off in 2016.

Apple could increase MacBook sales volume, too, if it plays its cards right.

"In the PC world, particularly notebooks, there is a direct relationship between price and volume," Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told CNBC. "If Apple wanted to sell more MacBooks they could do that easily by having a $799 price point." The problem is Apple hasn't historically made products for the low-end market, Moorhead said.

Plus, while the iPad Pro 10.5 works for some folks as a full-fledged work machine, it's still not powerful enough for me to get any real work done. A cheaper MacBook Air could be the sweet spot Apple needs.

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