2008 year in review: News

2008 year in review: News

January
The year kicked off with some major acquisition news, when Oracle was finally successful in its bid to acquire middleware vendor BEA, while Sun Microsystems swooped in for open-source database provider MySQL. Other big news in January was the launch of Apple's thin-and-light Macbook Air.

February
Sony Ericsson unveiled its first Windows Mobile handset, the Xperia X1, at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. Elsewhere at the show, we got our first peek at prototype phones based on Google's Android open-source mobile platform.

Also in February, Dell made a surprise push away from its traditional direct-sales model and into the channel, while Adobe launched its AIR rich internet applications platform.

March
Microsoft started the month with the launch of Windows Server 2008, but developers excited by the prospect of getting their teeth into the accompanying Hyper-V release and SQL Server update were disappointed as they faced a six-month wait for both products until the third quarter.

Microsoft also released Vista Service Pack 1 to general availability, hoping to boost interest in its latest Windows operating system. However, the software giant was to face disappointment as 2008 has still not seen the hoped-for uptake of Vista.

March finished with the disastrous opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, which saw passengers stranded or facing long delays, and hundreds of suitcases disappearing into a black hole due to system failures.

April
Some good news for Microsoft in April, as its Office Open XML document format finally gained approval as an ISO standard. The firm also unveiled a push into the web-based world with the launch of Live Mesh, a platform designed to let users synchronise data across multiple devices.

HP unleashed its first netbook, the Mini-Note, which has since been followed by the launch of mini laptops from just about every PC maker.

Microsoft made Service Pack 3 for Windows XP available to download in the same month that it pushed out Vista SP1 as an automatic update, a move that many industry observers saw as putting another nail in the Vista coffin by giving firms more reason to stick with XP.

May
SAP announced that it would be scaling back plans for its hosted Business ByDesign offering, while Microsoft announced that it was abandoning its bid for Yahoo.

Handset maker HTC unveiled its Touch Diamond smartphone, and we also celebrated the 30th anniversary of spam in May.

June
Asus and Acer both added to their laptop offerings with the launch of new netbooks, while chip maker AMD unveiled its Turion Ultra mobile platform. IBM announced that it was building the world's fastest supercomputer capable of one petaflop performance, and internet managing body Icann gave the green light to customised top-level domains, paving the way for a whole lot of future hassle for firms trying to protect their brands online.

In the mobile world, Apple launched its long-awaited iPhone 3G, and Nokia impressed users with its E71, which combined tried-and-tested corporate and consumer features in a single handset.

June also marked Bill Gates's departure from his day job at Microsoft, while we also said happy first birthday to the Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations.

July
The festivities carried on into July, as Intel celebrated its 40th birthday and the Data Protection Act marked its 10-year anniversary. Less happy news at VMware, which booted out its co-founder and chief executive Diane Greene in favour of ex-Microsoft executive Paul Maritz.

Intel launched its Centrino 2 platform in July, while O2 made workers across the UK very happy by putting the iPhone 3G on sale and adding the device to its business portfolio. UK comms regulator Ofcom also unveiled its framework for superfast broadband.

August
Gary McKinnon lost his Law Lords appeal in August, while Microsoft released the second beta version of its forthcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser, and the first to be generally available to the public.

On the mobile front, Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold executive model hit UK shops, while Palm unveiled its business-focused Treo Pro running Windows Mobile 6.1.

September
We said happy 10th birthday to Google, and nervously awaited the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider which went without a bang but then promptly broke down and will now be out of action until summer 2009. That didn't stop scientists at Cern marking the occasion with their very own musical tribute.

IBM and PGP Corporation both coughed up £50,000 each to save Bletchley Park, but there was not such a simple solution to the meltdown across the financial markets, which began in earnest in September. As the credit crunch morphed into a recession, HP announced plans to cut 25,000 jobs after its purchase of services giant EDS.

October
Research In Motion launched its first touch-screen handset, the BlackBerry Storm, going head to head with the first Google Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, which went on sale in the UK in October. HP also unveiled its touch-screen iPaq this month.

Microsoft finally unveiled the name of its next major operating system release, Windows 7, which led to much heated debate among vnunet.com readers. The firm also leapt into the cloud computing space with the launch of Windows Azure.

November
The UK government issued the first ID cards, and Intel issued an earnings warning that its fourth-quarter revenues would be $1bn less than forecast.

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang, meanwhile, announced plans to step down after a troubled year for the internet firm.

December
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 was launched in the UK, while Nokia showed off its N97 touch-screen phone, although this will not be available until next year. Microsoft opened up Vista's SP2 beta to all.

December was also the month for huge job cuts in the IT industry: AT&T announced plans to cut 12,000 roles; Sony will cut 8,000; while Yahoo gave 1,500 staff redundancy notice.

So happy new year to all vnunet.com readers, and here's hoping that 2009 will start in a brighter way than the previous year ended.