technology08

Bangalore: The report cards from major IT companies are, and they paint a grim picture of the year before that is reminiscent of the 2008 crisis, making analysts doubt even the modest growth forecast of industry body Nasscom.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, the outsourcing service provider who grew up in a breakneck speed, and began to be seen as invincible, are beating the recession in the face of a tough demand environment. Monday Cognizant revised its growth expectation of 23% to 20%, and in the process lost almost a fifth of its market value.

Analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities think Nasscom's growth target "can be Tad aggressive." Kawaljeet Saluja, Rohit Chordia and Shyam M wrote in his report last week that slowdown in technology spending by banking & financial services companies together with anemic spending by telecommunications companies have put a significant risk for Indian IT services companies such as these two sectors together contribute about 40% of income.

The last set of earnings numbers of large IT companies also throws some interesting pointers, reminiscent of the 2008-09 fiscal, when corporations in the United States and Europe froze technology spending because of the global financial crisis, which has just started.

The top four IT companies together to grow revenue by a mere 1.2% - the slowest since the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Pricing, or per hour rates charged by IT companies, declined 1.2% - the sharpest quarterly sequential decline since the last quarter of 2009 fiscal.

Analysts begin to draw parallels with the 2008 crisis, from which the global economy is still not fully recovered. "Cognizant reconfigure its guidance of 23% to 20%, but why did the stock fall 20%? The reason is no one believes the reset is the actual reset" Moshe Katri, managing director of securities research firm Cowen & Co. said ET.

"This begins to look similar to 2008. Initially, there were budget delays, then it got worse and got much worse after that," Katri said.

After growing up in about 16% in 2011-12, India second largest exporter Infosys software is expected to grow only 8-10% in the year to March 2013.

This is much lower than the 11-14% growth forecast by the National Association of Esperanto & Service Companies (Nasscom).

Mumbai-based brokerage Motilal Oswal said the leadership of a large IT firms challenge Nasscom's growth expectations in the year before.

"While TCS will grow over the industry, we doubt if the industry growing number will still be 11-14%, going by the developments during the quarter," analyst Ashish Chopra of Motilal Oswal wrote in his latest report on the IT sector. "We will not be surprised if Nasscom estimates for fiscal 2013 is revised downwards."

Nasscom maintained that it expected to revisit the forecast only in October, just as for going out with the initial forecast earlier this year.

"For this year, we are sticking to the forecast of 11-14%. October will be the time that we come up for review," said N Chandrasekaran, the new president of Nasscom, two weeks, at the time of taking over. "It is not prudent to change the forecast based on quarter performance of IT companies."

While the number of proposals are a fraction of the apps available for iPhones and Android phones, Windows Phone Marketplace is constantly populating the store with a stable of key titles.

"We feel very, very good, wherever we went - a trajectory from zero to more than 80,000 applications," Microsoft's Casey McGee told The Times.

McGee and Brian Seitz, both senior marketing managers for Windows Phone, pull back the curtain a bit on the store and give us a look inside.

As the Windows Phone team is working diligently to improve the business experience, McGee said, their hope is that people will return regularly to the market for "recreationally look" at what's new. Each day, about 200 to 300 apps are published, he said.

When the company decided to fly its application store and start over, "we were in a unique position," Seitz said, of being able to learn from Apple's app approval process and make Microsoft more transparent.

"We have seen what is happening in the industry," McGee said. "Developers have been getting more and more frustrated with the process."

For this reason, he said, there is much communication throughout the process. "We do not 'just bounce it, we will explain to them," he said. The revenue split with developers is a 70/30.

Recently, Microsoft has outlined some efforts for quality control, including specific details on organization and content to help reduce the possibility that developers have their apps pulled from the Marketplace.

On the operating system, both Seitz and McGee said the software experience is consistent regardless of the phone.

"The customization and personalization is something," Seitz said. He changed his start screen depending on different stages in his life and travels.

"We have the most difficult work first screen in the show," Seitz said, referring to the real-time updating Live tiles. "More and more, I use my phone to look and go for a while."

Seitz noted a characteristic feature of Windows Phone devices. They are the only ones that run Xbox Live titles. Among these offerings is Wordament, a Boggle-style word tournament that pits you against the Internet. This game had them gushing that it is "the next Words With Friends."

It seems to be resonating with users as well. With more than 7,500 reviews, the application has a range of 4.5 stars.

Windows Phone stretch his range, Seitz said, "as people take to these new gems and see how the operating system works."

Gen Y - aged between 13 to 30 years old and heavily dependent on power intensive technology such as iPods and laptops, shrugs off messages to conserve energy in spite of rising environmental concerns, according to a study.

"But, paradoxically, it is also the age of advances in energy hungry technology - plasma TVs, iPods, iPads, smart phones and lap top computers are all available, a common place and well-used elements in Gen Y households," Samantha Smith, a doctoral candidate in marketing at Monash University, researching Gen Y students, he said.

Smith found a few feel the need to conserve energy even in the face of environmental messages.

"Gen Y's are big users of the technology as many aspects of his life engaging and trusted online technologies. The results of the investigation confirms the heavy dependence on Gen Y to have on electricity and highlighted the role that social media plays in creating this dependency , "says Smith.

"Feedback from participants also indicated that Gen Y's are dismissive of the impact they can and do have the environment and that, when electricity is limited, it is rare for Gen Y is experiencing a degree of stress," said Smith, according to a Monash statement.

"Environmental social marketing campaigns is therefore essential to ensure consumers are aware and act to curb their electricity use," Smith said.

Smith will present her findings at the 41 th Annual European Conference Marketing held at the ISCTE Business School in Lisbon, Spain this month.