April showers in tech conferences

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>> Sume Dos: Hello. I'm Sume Dos phonetic for ZDNet. Joining me now, Sam Diez, phonetic our Senior Editor. Sam thanks for being with us.

>> Sam Diez: Sure thank you.

>> Sume Dos: So we're gonna take a look ahead at the month of April. Q2 has just begun. Q1 by all accounts was kind of rough.

>> Sam Diez: Kind of rough. Yeah.

>> Sume Dos: Many people happy to say goodbye to it. Are we gonna see more of the same for Q2? Are we gonna see cut backs on IT spending, because of the current economic climate?

>> Sam Diez: You know I think it, it's really hard to predict what we're gonna see for Q2. Even the companies aren't really issuing forecasts. But, you know, it might be safe to say that it won't get any worse.

>> Sume Dos: We've seen the bottom then?

>> Sam Diez: No, I don't think we've seen the bottom. But, you know, there's a very fine line between not getting any worse and getting any better. I don't know that it's gonna get any better, but there are some glimmers of hope out there. BestBuy, for example, had a better than expected quarter, the key part being better than expected. Again, they're all forecasting conservatively, so when it's any better than they thought it would be that's a good thing. You know, Spring is here, flowers are blooming, there's news out there, new products; a lot of great stuff coming out. So it'll be interesting to see what happens in Q2.

>> Sume Dos: So April is also when conference season starts to ramp up. We can probably expect to see some new stuff there. We've got CTIA, RSA, and Web 2.0 all happening in the month of April. What are some themes that we're gonna expect to see at those events?

>> Sam Diez: You know, I think one of the big themes you're still gonna see at all the shows is cost savings. How can companies save money? And so for example

>> Sume Dos: A way to get peoples attention.

>> Sam Diez: Absoultly. So for example, you look at the Web 2.0 Expo, right? Companies still have to brand their products and their, their names, even though their marketing budgets have been cut, their advertising budgets have been cut. You know, Web 2.0 Expo will really introduce you to social media things like Twitter, all the rage right now, Facebook, and the beauty of those sort of things is they're free.

>> Sume Dos: Yeah.

>> Sam Diez: So a lot of great tools out there. RSA, for example, it's all about security. But there's a big push in cloud computing in virtualization. And the big question that companies have, you know they want to jump into those things to save money, but the big question is, are they safe? Are they secure? So these are the sort of themes that you'll be seeing at the shows. CCIA, for example, all bout 4G, Ymax, phonetic what it's, what are the technologies that are coming down the pipeline.

>> Sume Dos: Okay. So saving money, obviously, a big theme. Any other trends or new products that we can expect in the month of April?

>> Sam Diez: We are seeing new products. The biggest one being, of course, Intel's big announcement about its new Xeon 5500 chip, previously called Nehalem. A lot of excitement around this! Companies like IBM, HP, Dell, Cisco, all on board and really pushing the chip as a way to reduce energy costs, run faster, run smarter. Really building in some savings there. We're seeing Cisco up its game on TelePresence. You know, TelePresence meetings really reduces the need for a big travel budget. And that's where, you know, companies are really eyeing that one as well. And then, of course, Skype has just come out with its new iPhone and BlackBerry applications. Plenty of money to be saved on international calling by using Skype. Great new technology, and it really has companies excited.

>> Sume Dos: Okay Sam, we know that you're gonna be keeping a close eye on all of these products and trends in the month ahead.

>> Sam Diez: Yes I will.

>> Sume Dos: And, of course, we'll have video coverage of those conferences, CTIA, RSA, Web 2.0, and more. You can find out more on blogs.ZDNet.com.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Techologies ====