us in comment and analysis
Direct debit: why Dell's strategy needs support
Comment Dell's ability to provide this is yet to be proven, despite last November's $75m deal with Mobil and various US surveys saying that its customer service and technical support functions are better than those of IBM and Compaq. [10 Feb 1999]
Share and share alike: Is it time for online trading to clean up its act?
Comment US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Arthur Levitt, recently warned investors not to let the ease of Web trading delude them into making rash investments. The Internet has opened up world stock markets to the amateur broker. [04 Feb 1999]
Boom or bust: why ecommerce still has a long way to go.
Comment We have a personalised system and ask users to give us as much feedback as possible to deal with any problems they may face so we can continue the fine tuning that is needed to offer the complete service. [03 Feb 1999]
The unbearable meaninglessness of benchmarking
Comment Hang on a minute, a lot of us don't know what this benchmarking means," someone else piped up. It doesn't take Robin Guenier to tell us we need a remedy, and quick. At this late stage, the Audit Commission should promote information sharing and... [26 Jan 1999]
Euro bargains - get them while you can!
Comment Even local services such as online bandwidth broker, Band-X, advises European customers to trade in dollars, on the grounds that most big buyers in Europe are subsidiaries of US companies. He claims: "US companies will gradually start to understand... [14 Jan 1999]
Don't forget the customers!
Comment Last month, Jupiter Communications exposed some of the worst offenders in the US. It seems that this phenomenon is not restricted to the US. If so, email us (in confidence if you wish), and we'll name and shame the worst offenders early next year... [03 Jan 1999]
AirTouch-Bell Atlantic-Vodafone: a ménage-à-trois made in heaven
Comment US mobile firm, AirTouch is holding takeover talks with both Bell Atlantic and Vodafone. This week's speculation about the sale of US mobile network operator, AirTouch has turned to a possible bidding war between two possible suitors. [02 Jan 1999]
Keep an eye on the rising Sun
Comment He wants the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate. The American high priest of consumer protection, Ralph Nader, last week rallied his forces against the AOL/Netscape deal. It's bad for consumers, he argued, because the new giant would... [01 Dec 1998]
Monopoly or minnow? The future of Microsoft
Comment Talk of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) forcing Microsoft to be split into two companies (if not more) is also a red herring. The debate about whether Microsoft's products are good or not will run and run (feedback we've had over the last two... [30 Nov 1998]
The Trials of Microsoft - lessons from the past (Part 2)
Comment In 1956 the US Department of Justice (DoJ) won an anti-trust suit preventing IBM from becoming a monopoly in the punch-card tabulating and electronic data-processing machine market, resulting in a consent decree lasting for over 40 years. [17 Nov 1998]
The Trials of Microsoft: An overview
Comment Trial #1: In May this year, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and 20 states filed an anti-trust suit against Microsoft, alleging that the software giant had abused its monopoly power by bullying competitors and closing down innovation. [16 Nov 1998]
The Trials of Microsoft - lessons from the past (Part 1)
Comment The critics who believe that Microsoft is abusing its desktop dominance have come up with one obvious solution: split the company in half. If its operating systems business and applications business were separated and forced to compete on their own... [15 Nov 1998]
Signing up the competition - have digital signatures met their match?
Comment US start-up, FutureVision, which boldly asserted earlier this year that network attacks of the future would be based on quantum theory, has gone underground. Take hacker detection, which has become a crucial business issue as more money is made... [12 Nov 1998]
Why Tony Blair must catch the bug
Comment Which brings us neatly onto Action 2000 itself. The millennium bug has plagued the UK government this week. First came a Cap Gemini report which showed that Britain has slipped behind most of the rest of Europe in its readiness, falling from second... [12 Nov 1998]
The renaissance of push
Comment This time though, rather than wait for the vendors of push software to save themselves using marketing tricks, it's us who should be less fickle. Fashion is a curious thing. Take proprietary online services. [05 Nov 1998]
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