Windows 7 out by holidays

In today's podcast: Windows 7 out by holidays; SAP kicks off SAPPHIRE; and AMD gains on Intel.

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Microsoft will make Windows 7 available to businesses and consumers in time for the typically busy holiday shopping season in the fourth quarter of the year, according to company officials.
Windows Server 2008 R2, the server companion to the client OS, also will be available at the same time. Microsoft unveiled the information at its annual TechEd conference, which kicks off Monday in Los Angeles. Microsoft also said it plans to release a technical preview of the next version of its other key software product, Office 2010, in July to all attendees of the conference.
Microsoft made available the first release candidate of Windows 7 about two weeks ago, signaling that the company is close to a final release of the product, and so far the buzz about the OS has been generally positive.

SAP is launching software for business intelligence and analytics, areas that are becoming integral to the strategy of the German enterprise applications company. SAP plans to show off the products at its SAPPHIRE show, which kicks off Tuesday in Orlando, according to Leo Apotheker, co-CEO of SAP. Apotheker discussed the products at a meeting with members of the press in New York Monday. One product is a business-analytics search tool called SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, which he likened to an "iTunes" for business analytics. It, allows any business user to search and find business analytics information very quickly, he said. The other application, called Constellation, combines social networking and business intelligence and "helps people work together in a very seamless way," Apotheker said Apotheker noted that many people still think of SAP as mainly an ERP company, but he said that ERP "is not the conpany's biggest moneymaker" and makes up only a small percentage of SAP's revenue.

Rackable Systems has completed its acquisition of Silicon Graphics and will change the name of the combined company to SGI. It hopes the name change helps it expand its business overseas, where SGI is a better-known brand. Rackable's x86 servers have been sold to large and midsize data centers primarily in the U.S., and the SGI name is more easily recognized in Europe and Asia, said Mark Barrenechea, Rackable's CEO, in an interview Monday. The new SGI will also continue to develop and support the high-performance computing systems that Silicon Graphics was known for, he said.

After five quarters of declining market share, Advanced Micro Devices gained ground in chip shipments over chief rival Intel during the first quarter of 2009, according to IDC. AMD saw its market share in processor shipments reach 22.3 percent during the first quarter of 2009, gaining 4.6 percent of the market compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Intel lost 4.7 percent of the total market to reach a 77.3 percent share, IDC said in a survey.
Intel's sequential decline was partly due to suppliers holding back on purchases as they tried to clear up excess inventory of mobile processors, especially Atom processors for netbooks. Shipments of Atom processors recorded a sequential decline of 33 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

And those are the top headlines from the IDG Global IT News Update brought to you by the IDG News Service. This is Marc Ferranti in the New York Bureau. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.