February 11, 2010
Working with SMBs? ZyXel Wants Your Attention
The VAR Guy
Dave Courbanou shares Shawn Roger’s, product marketing manager at ZyXel, thoughts on why VARs may want to partner up with them.
“They want to be simple. Shawn Roger, product marketing manager at Zyxel stressed this point. ‘We’re simpler than SonicWall and Watch Guard … we’re giving full lifetime firmware updates, and life time US based phone support out of the box. There’s no quoting service plants to the customers, no need to confuse customers. There’s also no per-user licensing fees.’ He also stressed the 30-day trial program that ZyXel offers. VARs can install the ZyXel USG solution and 30 days later report to the customer how it performed and how many threats, spam and Web pages it stopped.”
Microsoft Prepares Partners for Digital Homes
The VAR Guy
The VAR Guy writes that Microsoft will be launching a Digital Home competency for its partners in May.
“Microsoft is set to launch a Digital Home competency for channel partners in May 2010, according to documentation on the company’s Web site. The Digital Home channel initiative is part of a broader Microsoft Partner Network competency overhaul. Here are the details. Through its Twitter feed, Microsoft is telling partners to prepare for ongoing changes as the Microsoft Partner Network completes its evolution. The software giant has developed a simple grid to show VARs how their former competencies potentially map to new competencies within the revised partner program.”
Chinese manufacturer claims Apple stole iPad design
The Loop
Jim Dalrymple writes why a Chinese manufacturer is claiming Apple copied its iPad design from its P88 tablet.
“Chinese manufacturer, Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial, claims that Apple copied the iPad design from its P88 tablet. The P88 was introduced about six months ago in Berlin according to Zd Net. According to the specs, the P88 tablet runs Windows on a 10.2-inch resistive touch screen and an Intel Atom processor. The P88 has a battery life of 1.5 hours. Apple’s iPad has a 9.7-inch capacitive multitouch screen and uses Apple’s A4 processor, with a battery life of 10 hours.”
