Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

What Bill Said

 

To be exact, at his keynote address at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles, Bill Gates said this:

The phone is going to be the PC, and the PC is going to be the phone.

It's already happening. In fact, handhelds are outselling PC's about four to one. In Europe, one fifth of all web surfing is being done from a mobile device. And, in less than nine months, more than 500,000 domains have been registered with the newly available .mobi extension designed for the newly emerging mobile web. The biggest number of registrars are in the United States, followed by China.

While the so-called mobile web hasn't hit critical mass yet. It is definitely coming. While we wait, now is the time for companies to start thinking ahead and preparing. What new markets will open up to your company that weren't there before? How will you connect with them?

Is it time to start thinking of the mobile web as an entirely new distribution channel?

A Plug for Low End Theory

I just love this Thursday feature on Gizmodo and can't resist passing it on today because the information is just so darn useful. Brenden Koerner has a great little round-up today of how to shop various auction sites, etc. in search of bargain basement technology being sold off by state governments.

The State of Arkansas actually hosts its own auction site where you can find everything from old grey metal file cabinets to PocketPCs. And if you're in driving distance to Albany, NY, the State of New York would be happy to sell you five Blackberries for a mere $61 a piece.

Hey, it's not VC money. But, saved money is earned money.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio