Gaming Industry

The Video Gaming Industry has experienced significant changes in its 30 years old industry. The industry has seen big changes right from the days when Atari was providing household games at US. We have tried to provide you with an overview of the history of Video Games through our present article. The first of the articles in the series talks about first Gaming Company- Atari

Atari: It was the first in the gaming industry. It introduced a home version of the ball and paddle game of Pong in the year 1975. Atari sold 150,000 copies of Pong in the first year itself.

Its competitor Fairchild Channel F produced the first gaming console. Atari followed suit with its 2600 VCS (Video Computer System). Each of its cartridges was retailed for $25-$30. By 1979, many other gaming and toy companies entered the home console market – Mattel, Coleco, RCA and Philips Electronics. Atari represented two - thirds of the home console market in the United States. The home versions of arcade games such as Space invaders and Asteroids were a hit. It had turned into a $3billion business by 1982.

The industry started collapsing by 1983. The market was full of multiple consoles and poor quality software. Atari developed E.T a game based on Steven Spielberg’s hit movie by the same name. It was the last nail in the coffin. Atari posted a $536 million loss and the company was sold at a substantial discount in 1984 to Jack Tramiel (who named his company Atari Corporation).

The market was all silent for several years after the collapse until Nintendo came. Just be patient for the next article which would tell the story of how Nintendo took the US market by storm………….

~Naineet

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Oracle’s strategic acquisitions

This is a guest article by a very good friend of mine and author of www.mindcron.com.

Mergers, Takeovers, Buying businesses and Strategic acquisitions are the best management activity to become the no. 1 and expanding the business throughout the globe. Most of the corporate icons have eagle eyes for the strategic acquisitions in current corporate scenario.

Why not? There are lots of successful examples in front of us. Mittal Steel Company is sitting on the top of the steel world, Bharti Airtel has got 5th ranking in telecom industries after acquiring Zain and there are lots of lot stories.

IT industries are more aggressive in acquisitions and mergers. Microsoft has more than 200, IBM has more than 90, HP has around 100, CISCO has more than 140 and TCS has around 12 acquisitions and mergers to show global presence.

ORACLE is not lagging behind of anybody and has a remarkable record of corporate strategic acquisitions in the world of information technologies.

DATABASE e-Test (March 2008) Innobase (October 2005) Moniforce (December 2007) mValent (February 2009) Secerno (May 2010) (pending) Sleepycat (February 2006) TimesTen (June 2005) TripleHop (June 2005) APPLICATIONS AppForge (April 2007) Haley (October 2008) Interlace Systems (October 2007) LogicalApps (October 2007) Market2Lead (May 2010) Silver Creek Systems (January 2010) TempoSoft (December 2005) PRODUCT LINES Agile (May 2007) Hyperion (March 2007) PeopleSoft (January 2005) Primavera (October 2008) Siebel (January 2006) Telephony@Work (June 2006) IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION TOOLS Global Knowledge Software (GKS) (July 2008) SERVER AND STORAGE SYSTEMS Sun (April 2009) Virtual Iron (May 2009) INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS Communications and Media Convergin (February 2010) eServGlobal's Universal Service Platform (USP) (May 2010) (pending) HotSip (February 2006) MetaSolv Software (October 2006) Net4Call (April 2006) Netsure Telecom Limited (September2007) Portal Software (April 2006) Sophoi (October 2009) INSURANCE AdminServer (May 2008) Skywire Software (June 2008)

MIDDLEWARE AmberPoint (February 2010) BEA (January 2008) Bharosa (July 2007) Bridgestream (September 2007) Captovation (January 2008) ClearApp (September 2008) Context Media (July 2005) HyperRoll (September 2009) GoldenGate (July 2009) Java (April 2009) Oblix (March 2005) OctetString (November 2005) Sigma Dynamics (August 2006) Stellent (November 2006) Sunopsis (October 2006) Tacit Software (November 2008) Tangosol (March 2007) Thor Technologies (November 2005) ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION Primavera (October 2008) FINANCIAL SERVICES i-flex (August 2005) HEALTH SCIENCES Phase Forward (April 2010) (pending) Relsys (March 2009) INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING Agile (May 2007) Conformia Software (June 2009) Demantra (June 2006) G-Log (September 2005) RETAIL 360Commerce (January 2006) Advanced Visual Technology (AVT) (October 2008) ProfitLogic (July 2005) Retek (April 2005) UTILITIES LODESTAR (April 2007) SPL WorldGroup (November 2006)

Position associated with oracle after acquisitions:

• 11 of the top 11 global aerospace and defence companies run Oracle's mission-critical back-office applications and technology
• 9 of the top 10 global aerospace and defence companies run Oracle's Siebel customer-facing applications
• 8 of the top 10 European Union member Ministries of Defence run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 global automotive OEMs and suppliers depend on Oracle applications to accelerate innovation and time to market.
• 15 of the top 15 North American automotive OEMs rely on Oracle applications to optimize their demand-driven supply chains.
• 15 of the top 15 Fortune 500 automotive manufacturers run Oracle software and hardware
• 5 of the top 10 global chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 12 high performance chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 2,700 chemical companies run Oracle technology
• 780 chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 98 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Applications
• 97 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Fusion Middleware
• 100 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Database
• 10 of the top 10 network equipment providers rely on Oracle's Sun hardware
• 43 of the largest U.S. school districts run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 academic universities worldwide run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 research universities run Oracle applications
• 15 of the top academic institutions in Europe run Oracle applications
• 8 of the 11 Big 10 university conferences in the U.S. run Oracle applications
• Oracle is #1 in Financial Services customer relationship management
• Oracle is #1 in Financial Services human capital management
• 20 of the 20 top banks run Oracle
• 9 of the top 10 securities firms use Oracle applications
• 4 of the top 5 mutual fund companies use Oracle applications
• 4 of the top 5 world stock exchanges use Oracle applications
• 40 of the top 40 high technology companies run Oracle
• 30 of the top 30 Electronic OEMs run Oracle applications and technology
• 8 of the top 10 Semiconductor companies run Oracle applications
• 14 of the top 25 High Technology Distributors run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 Fabless Semiconductor companies run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 10 Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 Software companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 global manufacturing giants run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 Fortune's Most Admired Firms run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 15 office equipment manufacturers run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 insurance companies run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 contract research organizations (CRO) run Oracle Applications
• 20 of the top 20 medical device companies run Oracle applications
• All of the entertainment companies in the Global 500 run Oracle Applications
• 12 of the top 15 U.S. media companies run Oracle applications
• 6 of the top 15 publishing houses run Oracle applications
• 6 of the top 12 U.S. newspapers run Oracle applications
• 3 of the 4 major U.S. television networks run Oracle applications
  
• 3 of the top 4 global advertising organizations run Oracle applications
  
• More than 160 upstream companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 oilfield service companies from Reuters Online run Oracle applications
  
• More than 100 downstream companies run Oracle applications
  
• 9 of the top 10 integrated oil companies from the PFC Energy 50 run Oracle applications for their downstream businesses.
• 9 of the top 10 Global IT Services firms run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 10 "Best Firms to Work for" in Consulting Magazine run Oracle applications
  
• 27 of the top 35 companies on InformationWeek's list of most innovative consulting and business services firms run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 leading outsourcing service providers run Oracle
  
• 20 of the top 20 global retailers run Oracle
• 10 of the top 10 global fashion retailers run Oracle
• 20 of the top 20 global grocers run Oracle
• 10 of the top 10 European retailers run Oracle
  
• 10 of the top 10 North American retailers run Oracle
  
• 10 of the 10 top hotels get better results with Oracle
  
• 4 of the 5 top ports get better results with Oracle
  

• Let’s go for another!!!

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Google's Failed Products

"GOOGLE", whenever we hear this word there is only one thing which comes to our mind i.e "INNOVATION". Yes, Google is a synonym of "SUCCESS" and "INNOVATION" and my readers might have observed that till now we (Team GeekOnNet) have written only about it’s successful projects/product or successful innovation. But this time we are going to change the trend and we are going to write about Google’s failed product/project

My readers must be wondering, but it's true. Like other biggies (Microsoft, Apple etc.) Google too has a list of failed products/projects . Let's discuss some of its biggest flop products one by one.

1) Google Video: It was a clone of Youtube and other video sharing sites, But unfortunately it wasn’t able to generate traffic or revenue. This product became useless after the acquisition of youtube. I have no idea why is google video still alive.

2) Google Lively: Lively was a Three-Dimensional universe where user could create different 3-d a avtar and could interact with other avtars. Google launched Lively on July 8, 2008 as an experiment in providing people with more ways to express themselves on the Web. Again, people didn’t like it and google had to close down this project on 31 dec 2008.

3) Google Buzz: Yes, I am considering this Twitter look-a-like product as failed product. I have already predicted that this product is not going to be as useful as other Google products are.

4) Orkut: issshh... Is it a failed product? I think it is a semi failed product. As you can see in my "war of online social networks" post, orkut has least number of active users compared to 2 other biggies like Facebook and MySpace. Orkut is popular in south Asian countries like India, Pakistan and South American countries like Brazil, Argentina etc.

5) Friend Connect: Friend Connect allows users on the internet to connect with their friends on different websites. I see only few websites and blogs are using this service.

6) Wave: I have no idea what is happening with this over hyped product.

7) Google Page Creator: Google Page Creator was a website creation and hosting service by Google. The service had been shut down in 2009, while existing published pages migrated to Google Sites.

8) Google latitude: I have not heard a too much about this product. This product allows a mobile phone user to allow certain people to track their location.

There are few other products like Knol, Google Health which never met their target audience and became useless. Sometimes it happens that our expectations and predictions go wrong. I think the above list is not too big for a company like Google.

I am sure we will keep loving Google even after seeing the above list. Google is something which has changed everyone's life and continues to make life more comfortable.

If you have any other Google’s failed product in your mind please write as comment to this post. I will add that to my list.
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I would like to thank Mr. Sanjit for his valuable information. I am enhancing the above list.
iGoogle, Google click-to-call, Google NoteBook, Google SideWiki, GOOG-411, Google Answers
Thanks again!!!

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