News in brief

Dertouzos, web progenitor, dies at 64



NEW YORK: Computer scientist Michael Dertouzos, who was central in

establishing the World Wide Web as an international standard, has died in a

Boston hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said on Wednesday.

Dertouzos, 64, director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science since 1974,

used his influence among academics, industry and government officials to broker

creation of the World Wide Web Consortium in 1993 to oversee development and

insure the independence of the Web. Born in Athens, Greece, Dertouzos joined the

MIT faculty in 1964 and for decades used his position at one of the world's

leading technology research institutions to prod the industry to make computers

more accessible to non-technical audiences. — Reuters

Net4India unveils new dial-up packages



BANGALORE: Internet Service Provider Net4India has launched new packages -- Diet
Pack and Dream Pack -- in the limited and unlimited categories of dial-up

accounts. Speaking on the occasion, Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India, said,

"It is our constant endeavor to innovate and value-add to provide the best

of breed solutions to our customers. With these packs, our SME customers or

individuals can get all Internet services under one roof." The Diet Pack

has a usage time of 25 hours and is valid for 12 months. An additional 10 e-mail

IDs and 10 MB of Web space are being given along with the pack. Priced at Rs.

99, the renewal price is Rs. 75. Dream Pack is also valid for 12 months but has

unlimited usage time. It is priced at Rs. 1,999 with additional 10 MB Web space

and 10 e-mail IDs. — CIOL Bureau

TrustAsia to sell Verisign services in Asia



SAN FRANCISCO: Internet security company VeriSign Inc. has tapped TrustAsia,

a Singapore-based reseller of its security services, to be its largest Asian

affiliate, TrustAsia is ready to announce on Wednesday. Like VeriSign, TrustAsia

will sell Internet address services to help companies establish an online

presence, payment services for e-commerce, and security services for

authenticating and validating digital communications, said Seth Jutan, chief

executive, chairman and founder of TrustAsia. VeriSign started its affiliate

partner program in 1997 and now has at least 40 companies around the world

selling its services and sharing royalties with the company, according to Steve

Crawford, VeriSign's director of international product marketing. - Reuters

Merrill cuts Sun’s outlook



NEW YORK: Joining Goldman Sachs a day earlier, Merrill Lynch on Wednesday,
citing anemic demand, said it cut its 2002 outlook for Sun Microsystems. Analyst

Thomas Kraemer lowered his estimates for the fiscal first quarter to a loss of 2

cents from a profit of 1 cent, with revenues targeted at $3.6 billion instead of

$3.7 billion. For the second quarter, Kraemer cut his view to earnings of 3

cents from 8 cents previously. He also reduced his fiscal 2002 estimate to 27

cents from 38 cents a share, on revenues of $18.3 billion, down from $18.8

billion. Kraemer said in a research note the current estimates assume some

recovery in the December quarter with "meaningful economic improvement

following that," he said. - Reuters

Nokia loses market share



LONDON: Shipments of mobile phones fell sharply in the second quarter and
manufacturers Motorola and Ericsson grabbed market share from leader Nokia,

research group Gartner Dataquest said on Wednesday. Global shipments of mobile

phones from manufacturers to distributors in the second quarter of 2001 fell to

89.76 million units from 96.69 million in the first quarter. Shipments fell by

8.4 per cent from 97.98 million units, year on year. Market leader Nokia of

Finland lost some market share in the second quarter, falling to 34.8 percent

from 35.3 percent in the first quarter. It had a global market share of 27.5

percent in the second quarter of last year. US-based Motorola came in second

with a 14.8 percent sharer. Number three Ericsson from Sweden climbed to 8.3

percent from 6.8 percent. - Reuters

NIIT in deal with Alcatel



NEW DELHI: Indian training and software services firm NIIT Ltd has reached a
deal with French telecom equipment maker Alcatel to provide customized solutions

to its clients, a financial daily said on Wednesday. The Economic Times

newspaper quoting New Delhi-based NIIT's director and president Arvind Thakur as

saying: "We are working with Alcatel as a partner for its solutions both in

the domestic and international markets." NIIT's spokesman was not

immediately available for comment. The report did not give financial details.

This makes NIIT the first Indian firm to join Alcatel's 12 premium partners who

provide software solutions for the banking, financial and insurance sectors, the

paper said. - Reuters

InfoTech gets SEI -level 4 quality rating



BANGALORE: Indian software developer InfoTech Enterprises Ltd said on
Wednesday that it had been rated at Level 4 on a scale of five in a quality

rating that tracks the processes of software companies. The US-based Software

Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model rating, or SEI-CMM assessment,

is a popular industry measurement similar to Europe's ISO norms. A higher rating

reflects more maturity. SEI-CMM Level 5 is the highest possible rating.

InfoTech, which specializes in software for visual and geographical design,

caters to clients such as aerospace firm Pratt & Whitney, Ford Motor Co. and

British Telecom. - Reuters

Super Micro to launch motherboards in India



MUMBAI: Supermicro, an US-based company plans to enter India with their
high-end motherboards and barebone servers. The firm’s senior director of

strategic sales Phidias Chou who was in Mumbai for the launch said that had

entered into a strategic alliance with Meganetworks for the distribution of

their new products. With the launch, Supermicro hopes to capture at least two

percent of the motherboard and the server market in India by the end of this

year. - CNS

ORG-MARG, GTL tie up on networking solution



MUMBAI: ORG-MARG, a market research company has chosen Global Tele-Systems
Ltd (GTL) to provide a networking solution for connecting 15 branch offices

across India for gathering research data. The networking solution would save

cost and time in transferring the data from their HO at Baroda to their various

offices. The project would be implemented in a phased manner. In the first phase

connectivity would be established between three offices in three cities whereas

in the second phase the remaining 15 offices will be interconnected through GTL’s network. - CNS