Analyst advises caution over Windows 7 demand estimate

In today's podcast: Analyst advises caution over Windows 7 demand estimate; Global Foundries to announce first customer soon; Chinese Net users outnumber US population.

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A former Microsoft employee and prominent analyst warned the financial community not to be misled by Microsoft's claims about early corporate adoption of Windows 7. Microsoft said this week at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference that it has already licensed 51 million desktops for Windows 7, which won't be available to business customers through its volume-licensing program until Sept. 1. However, Rob Horowitz, the founder and CEO of analyst firm Directions on Microsoft and who worked at the company for eight years, said that many of those corporate licenses are likely tied to its existing enterprise-agreement contracts with customers and don't represent any specific interest in the new OS.

Advanced Micro Devices spin-off GlobalFoundries is set to announce its first customer soon, taking a step forward as it tries to build up its manufacturing operations. GlobalFoundries' addition of a new customer is a big step in the company's efforts to diversify its chip manufacturing over multiple customers, the company said at the Semicon West trade show in San Francisco. The company declined to name the customer, saying an announcement would come in the next few weeks. GlobalFoundries was formed in March after AMD spun off its manufacturing unit in a joint venture with Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), an investment fund controlled by the Abu Dhabi government. Close to 100 days on, the company is still only working with AMD and finds itself trying to shed the identity as AMD's manufacturing arm.

China's Internet users have surpassed the U.S. population in number, and more Chinese than ever are using e-commerce and accessing the Web through mobile phones, according to official statistics. China had 338 million Internet users at the end of last month, the most in any country, the China Internet Network Information Center said late Thursday. Chatting on message boards, cruising around social networking sites and pursuing other entertainment were among the most popular activities for Web users, the center said in a report posted on its Web site. The number of Internet users who watched videos online rose 10 percent from six months ago. More than one-fourth now shop online.

HTC released a software update on Thursday that fixes a Bluetooth vulnerability disclosed earlier this week by a Spanish security researcher. The vulnerability, found in an HTC Bluetooth driver, could allow an attacker to gain access to all files on a phone by connecting to it via Bluetooth, according to Alberto Moreno Tablado, the researcher who discovered the bug in the OBEX FTP service and first reported it earlier this year. The vulnerability enables a directory traversal attack requires that a victim's phone has Bluetooth switched on and Bluetooth file sharing is activated. The vulnerability affects nearly all HTC handsets running Windows Mobile 6 or Windows Mobile 6.1

... And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of te