iPhone shortage

Tech

Silicon Valley Insider points to a commenter called Tantrum responding to a story in the New York Times about the current shortage of iPhones in Apple’s US shops. It seems that among the factors driving incredible demand in emerging markets is that the US $ price of the iPhone compares favourably compared to the local price of high-end Nokia and Blackberries.

Demand for iPhones outside the United States, particularly in emerging markets, is out of control and has reached the point where it has started to impact Apple’s normalized supply chain projections.

Follow either link for the full analysis which makes very interesting reading.
The conclusion:

Apple has produced a product that is promising but short of the mark in 3G Western Europe, reasonably good for the US but a smash hit in emerging markets.

Nokia ties into Siebel

CRM, Tech

The Motley Fool reports that Nokia has revealed details of a new phone that will be able to access Oracle apps including Siebel.

The E90 and its antecedents will connect to corporate databases through the Oracle Database Lite framework, with two separate applications for accessing Siebel-based customer management data. An Oracle spokesperson says that the collaboration has been five years in the making, so Finland’s finest has seen a need for tighter business integration for quite some time. For Siebel, that timeframe goes back beyond Oracle’s acquisition of the business-intelligence specialist in 2006.