With the end of 2010 right around the corner, this edition of Weekend Reading focuses on the year that was and the year that could be, along with an interesting story about how the fiber-optic market has finally come full circle a decade after the telecom depression of the early 2000s.
Without further ado, here is your New Year’s Eve edition of Weekend Reading:
Microsoft lauded as a top innovator. Microsoft was number one on TheStreet.com staff reporter Jason Notte’s “10 Top Innovative Companies” list, beating out hard-nosed competitors such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. According to Notte, Microsoft overtook Nintendo and Sony in the video game market with hit products like the Kinect for Xbox 360.
Microsoft: The Year in Pictures. In this collection of 36 snapshots, SeattlePI.com highlights some of the more memorable images that told the Microsoft story in 2010. Highlights include shots of pop songstress Katy Perry performing at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City to help kick off the launch of Windows Phone 7, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi touring the Microsoft Home of the Future and the announcement of a sponsorship deal between Bing and the Seattle Storm of the WNBA.
Bing. In this installment of the Bing Search Blog, the Bing team looked back at the top New Year’s resolutions searches from last January. The most popular resolutions-related search terms? You guessed it – those associated with losing weight.
Tech predictions for 2011. New Year’s Eve just wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without someone making predictions concerning the year ahead. In this Wall Street Journal story, WSJ columnist Walt Mossberg writes about what’s in store for some of the biggest players in the tech industry in 2011, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter.
Dark fiber is no longer dark. Back in the early 2000s, Wall Street pundits everywhere predicted a world of lightning-fast fiber-optic networks carrying massive amounts of Internet traffic and video content was just a few years away. Needless to say, the bursting of the tech bubble and the resulting telecom depression threw a wet blanket on those predictions. For years, those fiber networks, which cost billions to build, lay dark. However, the advent of services such as online video streaming company Netflix and the adoption of data-heavy smartphones have finally rendered those predictions true – just a decade later than any of the experts ever thought would happen. Check out this story in the Wall Street Journal to read all about it.
With that, Happy New Year, everyone. See you in 2011!
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Senior Manager, Corporate Blogs
