Ballmer says innovation key to recovery

In today's podcast: Ballmer says innovation key to recovery; Jobs not expected to appear at Apple's WWDC; Intel says EU testing antitrust law limits.

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Growth will have to come from higher productivity and innovation when the economy begins to recover, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told developers gathered Wednesday in Hyderabad for the company's India edition of the Tech Ed conference. The IT industry will have a starring role to play in that recovery as customers focus on improving productivity and innovation, Ballmer said in his keynote address, which was webcast. A lot of the productivity growth in businesses comes from IT, Ballmer said. IT also continues to innovate and those innovations are needed by companies in other industries as well, he added. The global economy is getting "reset" in a "once in a lifetime" type of economic change, according to Ballmer. Businesses and consumers were borrowing too much money, using that credit to fund capital expenditure. IT accounted for 50 percent of capital expenditure in the U.S., he said, and consumers borrowed money against their homes to pay for electronics such as PCs and flat-panel displays among other things, he added.

Apple today announced that an executive team will deliver the keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 8, but didn't mention CEO Steve Jobs as one of those expected to take the stage. Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, is slated to return to the company at the end of June. Even so, some had speculated that he would make an appearance at WWDC, where in the past he has led major product announcements, such as last year's iPhone 3G. Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, will lead the team of Apple executives in the keynote. Schiller received mixed reviews when he filled in for Jobs at the January Macworld Conference & Expo keynote, another major event that the CEO has traditionally handled.

Antitrust regulators around the world, led chiefly by the European Commission, are testing the limits of the law in their pursuit of Intel and its practice of offering rebates to computer manufacturers and IT retailers, Intel Senior Vice President Bruce Sewell said Wednesday. He spoke to journalists shortly after the European Commission found Intel guilty of abusing its dominant position in the microprocessor chip market in Europe, at the expense of its only significant rival, Advanced Micro Devices. The Commission fined Intel a record [euro]1.06 billion, or US$1.44 billion, and ordered it to stop handing out rebates to PC manufacturers and retailers on condition of near or total exclusivity. It also ordered the firm to stop paying PC makers to delay the launch of models equipped with AMD chips.

All but one of the legal claims filed against Hannaford Bros. -- the Maine-based retailer that suffered a security breach exposing some four million credit and debit cards -- has been dismissed. U.S. District Court Judge Brock Hornby threw out the civil claims against the grocer for its alleged failure to protect card holder data and to notify customers of the breach in a timely fashion. In dismissing the claims, Hornby ruled that without any actual and substantial loss of money or property, consumers could not seek damages. The only complaint he allowed to stand was from a woman who said she had not been reimbursed by her bank for fraudulent charges on her bank account following the Hannaford breach.

...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 Boston. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.