Tech Trends:Google Exec Predicts Cheaper Smart Phones

Eric Schmidt,the software engineer who is Google's Executive Chairman,remains the public face of the company after having left the CEO role.His wide-ranging thoughts are heard
everywhere from the halls of Congress to the World Economic Forum that was just held in Davos,Switzerland.
Everything feels sluggish because there's not enough demand,Mr.Schmidt remarked in Davos,but the Internet continues to win advertising,which is less expensive on it.We haven't seen the slowness as hard as others.
Phones that are powerful will go down in price to 60-70 dollars for a billion people.People outside the Western world will rely on mobile phones in fundamental ways because they don't have access to TV and libraries.
We at Google love advertising and we innovate in many ways in it.We're coming up with new ways to make sure your advertising money is well spent.
In the cloud,you don't have to use email to collaborate.People need service and support,and applications can be built on top of it even if it's free.If 100 million people use it,you can make money from it,Eric Schmidt asserted.
Google's Q4 earnings were below estimates,causing the share price to drop 57 dollars.Wells Fargo downgraded the firm from outperform to market perform.
Google,Inc.(GOOG)

Why Intel Did Better

Intel's chips are used in 80% of the world's computers.Its Q2 results show that people and companies are investing in technology,Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith says.The enterprise market came back.They saw server and notebook sales strong.The IP network centers invested in posting information in the cloud.
Intel sees tablets as being a complimentary market.They saw nice growth in netbook sales and great growth in notebook.They think they're gonna be very well represented in tablets.
Intel's success is a combination of the strength of their product lines and their hard work to reduce their expenses.They're still really excited about the investment they're making in China.They saw that China over Q2 was a little stronger than normal seasonal patterns by the end of the quarter.China will be Intel's largest market in the world,Mr.Smith predicted.
Another tech titan,IBM,posted earnings per share that were greater than estimates,but,unlike Intel,reported revenue that missed the estimates of Wall Street analysts.Texas Instruments followed suit.
Intel(INTC),International Business Machines(IBM),Texas Instruments(TXN)

Focus on Google

Eric Schmidt,CEO of Google(GOOG),has been reflecting on his firm's present and future.Cloud computing is a technological breakthrough,the bespectacled executive said.You don't have to worry about where anything is stored.Google doesn't focus on the short term movement of its stock price.It focuses on the huge opportunity that is before it:the automation of the advertising industry,which is a trillion dollar business.Google's ad technology is getting much better.Not much affected by macroeconomics,Google focuses on quality:fewer,more targeted ads.That's the secret of Google.You want to get those customers and leads right now,and that's what Google does,Mr.Schmidt said.

Salesforce in a Cloud

Salesforce.com(CRM) is partnering with Google(GOOG) to expand cloud computing.In cloud computing,customers pay for applications such as word processing or customer service,rather than buying software.Cloud computing is just like using a web site,with applications being delivered through a browser.There is nothing to upgrade or install.The way that people and businesses operate today is different than when Microsoft(MSFT) began,Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said.Software needs to be replaced by cloud computing.As for Microsoft,it needs to buy companies in order to catch up,Mr.Benioff feels.