The month ahead: Partnerships and products expected

Introduction

>>

Sumi Das: Hello I'm Sumi Das for ZDNet. I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that summer is drawing to a close. But the good news is, that means we actually have some news to look forward to. And joining me now for a preview of the month of September is our senior editor Sam Diaz. Sam, thanks for being with us.

>>

Sam Diaz: Sure, thank you for having me.

>>

Sumi Das: So there are a couple of reasons why we're expecting announcements over the next month, and 1 of them is because conventions are back. Tell us what the 2 major conventions are, and what the buzz might be out of those shows?

>>

Sam Diaz: Well that's right. The first of which is VMworld, kicks off at the beginning of the month, and of course this is VMware's big show - Cloud Computing, Data Center Virtualization, all very hot topics, and we can expect to hear a lot of this out of VMworld. Some partners are already making some buzz about the things that they want to talk about, so there's plenty of stuff happening there as well.

>>

Sumi Das: Partners such as?

>>

Sam Diaz: Well I actually have spoken to Iomega already. They of course are an AMC company, and they've got some products they want to launch for the consumers that talk more about the Cloud Computing sort of things they can do. So that's pretty interesting. We've also got the Intel Developer's Forum at the end of the month; of course always a big draw now that Adam is very well known in the Netbook space. And Halum is out there as well, so I would expect plenty of news at the Intel Developer's Forum. And I was also warned, now Sales Force has a conference later in the year. But I've been told now, these are their words not mine, to expect a firehose of news over the next couple of months.

>>

Sumi Das: Firehose huh?

>>

Sam Diaz: ... leading up to the show. So I'm looking forward to some Sales Force news as well.

>>

Sumi Das: Another reason why we're expecting headlines in the month of September is because now that the kids are back at school, it's time to start thinking about the holidays. And this is something tech companies have already begun planning for.

>>

Sam Diaz: That's right. The holidays, always a big event for the tech companies. Early in the month we're expecting some news from Apple. They're expected to hold an event where they'll probably announce a refresh of their iPod line. Now there's been a lot of buzz about this tablet computer from Apple.

>>

Sumi Das: Right, I've heard that buzz.

>>

Sam Diaz: We're seeing a lot of that, but you know the other buzz is 2010. Now there's some hope out there...

>>

Sumi Das: Not going to happen before the holidays.

>>

Sam Diaz: We'd like to see it, but I don't see that happening. Apple's got to perfect that thing before they put it out. So for the holidays we'll focus on iPods. Verizon Wireless also expected to make some announcements. Of course phones are always big for the kids, and so I expect to see some phones in that space as well. And the other thing that we're expecting, we've actually received a "save the date", is from Motorola. Now Motorola's expected to lauch a line of Android phones - Google Android Smartphones, sometime before the end of the year, with a "save the date" for September and even a little cute Android icon on that invitation.

>>

Sumi Das: So you know what they're going to be talking about?

>>

Sam Diaz: Yeah, we know they're going to be talking about. We expect to see a line up of Android phones from Motorola. So plenty of news out there for the holidays. Expect to see all of that.

>>

Sumi Das: Sam, there's a lot for you to keep track of this month. Thank you so much for the preview.

>>

Sam Diaz: Sure, thank you.

>>

Sumi Das: And you can read more about all of those announcements at blogs.ZDNet.com.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====