Markets were back on the offensive today with the Nasdaq posting a gain of 3.32%. With stocks wildly swinging up and down on a daily basis, one thing is for certain: What was supposed to be a sleepy August after earnings season has turned into a raucous affair. Let's get straight to the top three tech stories from the last 24 hours.
Tech News No. 1: Growth stocks bounce back
Less than two weeks ago I highlighted how "best of breed" networking stocks were getting sold off in the wake of poor earnings from NetApp. Investors feared that IT departments would ratchet back spending, especially on projects deemed "non-essential." Of the three stocks I highlighted, Riverbed
However, just seven short trading days later and we've seen quite a bounce from this group. The main storyline was Aruba Networks posting earnings that met expectations, and also issuing sales guidance for next quarter above consensus estimates. Looking forward, while Aruba might be stealing share from wireless networking leader Cisco
Compare that to the WAN optimization market where Riverbed is beating Cisco and controls 43% of the market. Likewise, F5 has opened up a market share lead over Cisco in load balancing that's reportedly over 20 percentage points. Point being, if you're an investor that was excited about Aruba Networks' earnings, make sure to take a look at some other networking plays. While Aruba's technology might be the class king of Wi-Fi, there are other beaten-down plays in the field that have much stronger market positions in other areas seeing tremendous growth.
Tech News No. 2: Where will webOS go?
Through yesterday, it was a pretty safe bet that the South Korean government's plan to create a new mobile OS was more indignation over Google buying Motorola Mobility than a real threat to Android and Apple's
However, interesting news broke today that shows Korean companies might be taking the threat of Google competing with them more seriously than originally anticipated. DigiTimes, a site known for breaking news of varying repute, is reporting that Samsung might be interested in scooping up webOS from Hewlett-Packard
The story actually makes a good bit of sense. If the Korean government and Samsung are concerned about reliance on Android, buying up webOS on the cheap is a much more attractive proposition than either building a new operating system from scratch or trying to expand sales of Samsung's internally developed mobile OS, named Bada. Instead, Samsung could get additional patent protection through Palm's patents while also considering either integrating webOS and Bada together or using webOS as a new stand-alone platform it heavily promotes.
I'm naturally leery of any company's attempts to revive webOS. The OS has always been lauded for its interface and advanced features, but building up a large developer community and getting consumers to buy webOS smartphones has been a failure. However, with Samsung's massive resources and the government urging it to reduce its reliance on Android, this is one rumor which has some sizzle to it.
Tech News No. 3: More patent spoils
After the bell, Universal Display
That's it for today's tech checkup. To stay updated on all your favorite technology stocks, make sure to add them to our free My Watchlist service. It delivers up-to-date news and analysis on all of your favorite companies.