There is no doubt that Dell recognized at least a year or two ago that just selling hardware products wasn't going to be good enough. "They need to have a more comprehensive solution to answer a client's service needs," said Ian Brown, a senior analyst in the IT Services Practice at Ovum. Brown says and SilverBack Technologies, a remote server management company, will give Dell a new opportunity to "grow their share of the wallet." But it goes deeper than that. Ever since Hewlett Packard surpassed Dell as the largest seller of computing hardware, it seems Dell got the message that the only way to expand was to recognize the existence of a far more complex computing environment and that its customers need more than just commodity hardware from its vendors. Fact is, today's users have much greater access than in the past to a wide range of applications due mainly to the fact that many more business processes have been turned into applications that employees need to access, said Brown. "Organizations are now opening up to a much wider world. With online access to a Web layer, the complexity of what IT has to provide from the data center to the desktop has changed," says Brown. HP has always been an enterprise company that dealt with services and manageability of all aspects of systems. Dell, on the other hand, was aware of that but kept its focus on products, never going much beyond selling an extended warranty. The truth is, says Brown, that Dell realizes it has to be more than a "box shifter." Dell needs to add on software management systems to go with the servers they sell. However, as it starts to take on more services and act more like a service provider, will Dell be able to take just half a step? Can it offer remote management, even if it encompasses desktops and servers without also offering the middleware every enterprise now requires to connect to back-end systems and deal with migration issues around legacy systems the way HP, IBM, and Sun have traditionally done? Brown says it is unlikely that Dell will ever offer the kinds of services of those companies offer, but it will try to make customers see that the glass is half full by playing up the fact that it doesn't have to sell a customer legacy equipment and that it has no vested interest in getting a customer to spend on high-end systems. Brown believes there is a place for Dell in the middle as accompany that says it can supply the best value infrastructure available and the software to manage that infrastructure. Time will tell or maybe Brown is reading the cards incorrectly. Maybe the acquisition of Everdream and SilverBack is only the beginning. Dell is certainly not a cash poor company, and next year, Michael Dell may surprise a lot of doubters in the industry by making a play for a major system integrator, either here or offshore.

Target said on its Web site customers can purchase "pre-owned" Apple Inc iPods, video games consoles and televisions. While results have been positive, it has not made a decision on whether or not it will continue the business. The discount retailer, on a call with analysts held after it released its quarterly earnings. said it began the test about 30 days ago after seeing that many used electronics returned to its stores in "perfect working order." On its Web site, it says the used items listed for sales were checked, inspected and refurbished by "either a manufacturer-authorized or Target-managed third party." "This means they're essentially good as new," the Web site states. A look at the site on Tuesday showed many used iPods and high-definition flat-panel televisions listed for sale, but there were no used video game consoles available. (Reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Vodafone's German unit is behind the action. The company petitioned the court to block sales of the iPhone in Germany until its complaints about an exclusive agreement between Apple and T-Mobile are addressed. "We're not taking any plans to replicate these actions anywhere else, or in the UK," a Vodafone spokesperson was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying. "It's a different regulatory environment. We believe it's more to do with a breach of local German laws." Vodafone vs. T-Mobile The court order does not demand T-Mobile stop selling the iPhones altogether, but does, at least temporarily, prohibit the company from selling them with a two-year contract. The court has mandated that the product be allowed to function on other carriers' networks. Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile Deutschland, could not be reached for comment, but in a published statement early Tuesday, T-Mobile Deutschland said that it reserves the right to claim damages from Vodafone, which operates the second-largest wireless network in Germany. T-Mobile, with 34 million customers, is the largest there. Although no one has been willing to go on the record to discuss what the exclusive arrangements are, said Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis, Apple has a revenue-sharing arrangement with its iPhone carriers in the U.S. and in Europe. "I've seen lots of financial analysts coming up with numbers that they clearly developed using a calculator, a napkin, a pen — and a lot of imagination," Greengart quipped, alluding to the speculation surrounding AT&T's five-year exclusive deal with Apple to sell the iPhone. Revenue Sharing Greengart said he figures the world will know sooner or later the extent of the revenue-sharing agreements because Apple is a public company. Apple might not break out the service agreement revenues specifically, he said, but financial analysts can look into the numbers to get a fairly close estimate. "If the service revenues becomes really healthy, Apple will probably want to break that out as well," Greengart said. "Apple still won't tell us, for a lot of good reasons, what specific deals they made with specific carriers. But if it becomes material, they will want to disclose some numbers around what they are generating separately between services and hardware." In the U.S., handset makers need to work with wireless carriers to get broad distribution. But in Europe that's not the case. Phones are typically unlocked. If not for service revenues, Greengart said, it would make much more sense to release the phones as broadly as possible in Europe and Asia. "Apple is going operator by operator in Europe, which means the company is clearly tying a service fee to that," Greengart said. "CEOs of some of the operators have said that publicly; they just won't say how much."

But this year, it looks like the gift everybody is looking for is the same as last year: the Nintendo Wii. A year after its launch, the small video game console sells out almost immediately when it reaches stores, even after Nintendo Co. has ramped up production several times. “Right now, if you work at it, it’s not too hard,” said John Lawrence, of Fort Worth, Texas, who bought a Wii a few weeks ago for his 9-year-old grandson. It took him some online sleuthing to find one at a local GameStop. “People have not gotten into the Christmas shopping mode. Once people get into that mindset, this is going to be an impossibility as it was last year,” Lawrence said. With the Wii, Nintendo set out make a console that would entice people who were not hardcore gamers, and it has succeeded. Janet Presti stood an hour in line at the Nintendo World Store in New York on Tuesday last week to get a Wii for her three children, but it wasn’t just for them. “I played it at my sister’s house and I loved it,” she said. Her household already has three game consoles: an Microsoft Xbox 360, a Sony PlayStation 2 and a Nintendo GameCube. The Wii responds to the user moving the wand-like wireless controller, while other consoles are controlled by a confusing array of buttons and joysticks. It also comes with an array of casual, nonviolent games that appeal to adults. Sony and Microsoft have cut the prices of their consoles this fall, but continuing demand for the Wii has meant Nintendo hasn’t had to. Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs at Nintendo of America, said the console was “priced right from the beginning.” A look at eBay shows that Kaplan may be wrong: New Wii systems are selling about $100 above the $250 store price. Some of the demand for Wiis results from trouble in the toy industry, as well as the gadget’s cross-generational appeal. “No one is buying toys right now because of the recalls,” said Gerrick Johnson, a toy industry analyst at BMO Capital Markets. First, toys were recalled because of lead paint and dangerous magnets. Then, Aqua Dots — colored beads that were making their way to must-have status — were pulled because they were coated with a chemical that turned into the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate if swallowed. “It’s really unfortunate for the toy industry, because the lead issue was starting to subside, was getting off the front page … and then along comes this, which is totally outrageous,” Johnson said. “Whoever thought that there’d be a day when parents say ‘Don’t play with your dangerous toys, go play with your video games’?” he asked. The console has been a tremendous boost for Nintendo, which lost out to Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. in the last generation of game consoles. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, it more than doubled its sales to $6.1 billion from a year earlier, just before the launch of the Wii. It sold 5.5 million Wiis in the U.S. since it went on sale on last Nov. 17. The stock market now values Nintendo at $75 billion, compared to $48 billion for Sony, which has six times the revenue. Nintendo has increased the pace of production, but acknowledges that it won’t be able to satisfy holiday-season demand. “It’s brand new technology, so you can’t build it on just any line,” said Nintendo’s Kaplan. In an interview last week, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said the Wii shortages were “a little fortuitous,” and indicated that the PlayStation 3 was poised to benefit from the situation. U.S. sales of the console doubled to 100,000 per week soon after an Oct. 18 price cut, he said. The issue of demand outstripping supply has dogged Nintendo with the DS handheld game as well, which launched in 2004. “We’ve been struggling since launch to keep inventory — we finally have enough of that,” said Kaplan. ___ On the Net:

"The U.S. has so far opted for compensation to make right what is wrong. I don't think compensation does that job," he told members of the European Parliament on Tuesday. The European Union and other trading partners have been in compensation talks with the United States over Washington's decision to remove gambling services retroactively from commitments it made as part of a 1994 world trade agreement. Billions of euros were wiped off the market value of European online gaming companies when the United States closed off its market last year. "What we really need is for the legislation to be put right and for foreign operators to stop being excluded and discriminated against in the way the present U.S. legislation does," Mandelson said. Mandelson met U.S. Senator Barney Frank during a visit to Washington this month and he said on Tuesday he was hopeful the senator's attempts to change the law would be successful. "I will continue to make these arguments on behalf of the European industry," Mandelson said. (Reporting by William Schomberg; writing by Darren Ennis; editing by Paul Bolding)

The brushed-metal, clamshell-shaped device is the first of AT&T's phones to offer the music service. Five tracks can be downloaded each month from Napster Mobile under the five-track pack option for $7.49, or purchased one at a time for $1.99. AT&T Vice President Carlton Hill said that the SLM "represents the best collection thus far of our music, multimedia, and messaging services." Music Apps and More Other music services available through the phone include XM Radio Mobile, Pandora, and the MusicID song-recognition service. There is also AT&T Video Share, stereo Bluetooth, a 2.0-megapixel camera with video-capture capabilities, advanced messaging options, and download speeds of up to 1,400 Kbps through AT&T's HSDPA network. It is also the first phone to have AT&T's mobile banking application, a recently announced offering that allows customers of Wachovia and SunTrust Banks to view their bank account balances, move funds, or pay bills. But packing in features does not always mean the easiest-to-understand, media-oriented phone, said Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis. AT&T's music offerings are "the most confusing" of the big carriers, he said, with eMusic, Apple, and now Napster. He added that the AT&T services even differ by device, and "you would need a giant monstrous spreadsheet" to keep track of the configurations. Confusing Options? Greengart said this overabundance of options is evident for customers who go into an AT&T store and say they are interested in getting a music-oriented phone. Because it's too complicated for most of the store personnel to match services with the customer needs, he said, the customer is often simply asked, "How much do you want to spend?" He said that Verizon, by contrast, offers V-Cast to over-$50 phones. It is expensive and the experience is "sub-par," he said, but added that the Verizon model is less confusing. Greengart also said that the five-tracks package price has combined various pricing strategies. He noted that Apple's 99-cents-per-song price has become a reference point, with Sprint offering songs for that price as well. Verizon, on the other hand, is charging $1.99 for over-the-air downloads, he said, apparently based on the notion that over-the-air downloads should have a premium fee. AT&T has "split the difference," Greengart explained, determining that songs are $1.99 unless you buy them in a five-pack.

Robert YoungJohns, who most recently was president and CEO of performance management software vendor Callidus, is now president of North America sales and marketing as well as a corporate vice president at Microsoft. In his new role, which begins Dec. 3, YoungJohns will manage an 8,500-person sales force and report to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. YoungJohns, 56, has more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, 10 of which he spent at Sun in various positions, including executive vice president of global sales, and 18 years at IBM, where he held various positions. During his last role as top executive at Callidus, the company saw its business double in two and a half years and achieve 45 percent year-over-year growth. YoungJohns is filling a role vacated by Bill Veghte, who moved to become corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group in February 2007. In the interim, Microsoft Corporate Vice Presidents Michael Park and Jens Winther Moberg have been sharing responsibilities on an interim basis.

The maker of hit games such as "Splinter Cell" and "Prince of Persia" also predicted that fiscal year 2008-09 would be "another year of robust growth for the group." "Early indications for our Christmas games launches have been positive, especially for 'Assassin's Creed;, whose sell-through sales have already topped the record level of one million units," Chief Executive Yves Guillemot said in a statement. Current operating profit for the six months to September 30, 2007 was 9.1 million euros and compared to a loss of 33.6 million euros in the same period of 2006-07. Ubisoft achieved a net profit of 30.6 million euros against a loss of 20.5 million euros. This was notably after a gain of 7.5 million from the positive outcome of a lawsuit and 14.3 million from the sale of shares in Gameloft (), Europe's biggest provider of games for mobile phones. Sales rose an already reported 52 percent to 261 million euros, a performance boosted by games for new-generation consoles, which now make up 75 percent of the group's sales. Ubisoft kept its targets for the year to end-March 2008 of sales of about 825 million euros and for current income before stock options to be at least 9 percent of sales. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Paul Bolding)

Developed in conjunction with PointRoll, AOL's video ticker is essentially a graphic banner ad that is integrated within a streaming video but does not obstruct viewing. The ads will run across the AOL Network of video content within the newest version of the AOL Video media player platform. "With these ads, advertisers can target users who are consuming video with a clickable video or an interactive Flash ad, creating a deeper, longer brand dialogue that isn't passive," Curt Viebranz, president of AOL's Platform-A, said in a statement. Unobstructed Viewing Rather than overlaying an ad and obstructing the view of a video, AOL's video ticker ad appears at the bottom of the video player 10 seconds into the video stream. When consumers click on the ticker, it expands to launch a video ad or an interactive Flash ad within the video player window. Meanwhile, the video pauses. If the user does not interact with the ad, it dissolves after 15 seconds, leaving the branded text link. Clicking on the branded text link will relaunch the ticker. "The consensus, based in part on research, is that viewers don't like prerolls. So we may see versions of this format become one of the standards used in video advertising," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "This is quite different from prerolls because even though you have a fuller ad that sits behind the ticker, the user has to take action by clicking. So there's a greater burden on the marketer." Power of Video Ads Whatever the format, there is little question that video ads are here to stay. According to a recent survey by TNS Research, 78 percent of respondents agreed that online video ads provide at least as good an opportunity to learn about an advertiser as TV does. And 64 percent said that they have taken some action after seeing an online video ad. In addition, 41 percent of those surveyed stated that after they see a brand featured in an online video ad, they are more likely to think of that brand as having a strong presence on the Internet. "Advertisers want to be in video content. More and more consumers are using the Internet as a TV alternative. There's a lot of people who spend time watching a lot of video online," Sterling said. "Broadcasters or publishers definitely want ads to reach those consumers. But it's unclear whether this form of advertising is going to be appealing." In addition to introducing the new advertising system, AOL announced a revamped media player platform that introduces several new social features and a new development framework that is designed to make adding new features easier.

The iPhone made its German debut on Nov. 9, and has been available only with a two-year contract from Telekom’s T-Mobile. The German unit of rival Vodafone protested that practice at a state court in Hamburg. T-Mobile said Tuesday it was examining how to comply with a court injunction by Wednesday. The court issued an injunction, dated Nov. 12, barring T-Mobile from offering the iPhone exclusively with a minimum 24-month contract, and also from selling it only with a so-called SIM lock that prevents users from switching the device to any other operator’s network. T-Mobile said sales of the iPhone would continue, but pledged in a statement to abide by the conditions set by the court until the legal situation is resolved. T-Mobile said it would appeal the injunction and defended its marketing practices. It also said it reserves the right to consider seeking damages. The head of Vodafone Deutschland, Friedrich Joussen, was quoted as telling the Bild daily that “it cannot be that our customers can only get the iPhone with a long-term Telekom contract.” “We want fast clarification by the court as to whether the iPhone should be (available) for all or just for the few,” he added. The iPhone is a combined cell phone and iPod media player that also can access the Internet wirelessly.