Spotlight Features

Just a few years ago, getting an e-business off the ground was as easy as drawing up a business plan and finding the venture capital to fund it. Those days, to put it mildly, are over. But this does not mean businesses that rely on the Web are no longer sprouting. While most e-biz startups are not d...

Back in early 2000, mobile commerce seemed to have sky-high potential. A global survey found that 61 percent of respondents imagined they soon would be using wireless devices as universal payment tools, and the analysts who compiled the survey predicted that overall revenue generated by m-commerce w...

Thanks to millions of dollars in investments on the merchant end and widespread upgrades to broadband connections by consumers, e-commerce has begun to move at a faster pace. Still, transactions can bog down, especially over dial-up connections, and security remains one of the biggest impediments to...

The browser wars of a few years ago now seem like a footnote in Internet history. With 90 percent market share, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is king of the hill, Yankee Group senior analyst Rob Lancaster told the E-Commerce Times. However, even though Redmond seems to have won, some interesting bro...

In this tight economy, data managers no longer have a blank check when it comes to managing their company's enterprise storage, yet data needs continue to expand. How can enterprises do more with less? More to the point, how can companies walk that fine line between spending too much or too little?...

Thanks to dutiful sons and daughters, the approach of Mother's Day has become highly visible online, with a profusion of flowers, candy and other tokens of esteem displayed. It is harder to predict, however, which e-tailer will come out ahead in the race to win the affection of online shoppers. Will...

Apple's new iTunes Music Store features flat 99-cent per-song fees and few restrictions on usage once a song is downloaded. By putting itself at the forefront of digital music distribution, Apple could well become a powerhouse in this still-nascent e-commerce space. Will iTunes catapult Apple toward...

At the one-year mark of the giant HP-Compaq merger, the combined company appears to be doing better than expected, Forrester analyst Rob Enderle told the E-Commerce Times, despite recent reports that HP has lost the top spot in the PC marketplace to Dell. But even though the merger gets a mostly cle...

Onetime Internet darling Akamai's stock hit a 52-week high Tuesday. At $2.75 per share, the price is hardly stratospheric. This dreary reality is a far cry from the days when the company first became closely identified with the infrastructure of the Net. However, even though Akamai's sizzle has cool...

Spammers, perhaps the most hated denizens of the Internet, are under siege as the U.S. Congress and courts step up the pressure to reduce junk e-mail volume. Private companies are taking action, too: AOL announced on April 15th that it was filing lawsuits against five individual senders of unsolicit...

On the road to launching a new e-business Web site, all companies budget for obvious costs -- planning, designing, registering and hosting the site -- but if you are not careful, hidden expenses could overwhelm you on the journey. How much does an e-commerce site really cost to launch and maintain? ...

As Microsoft ramps up its Windows Server 2003 launch, enterprises large and small are trying to decide whether to upgrade to the new platform. Analysts interviewed for part 1 of this article agreed that, on the whole, the new OS is solid, stable and offers useful features. But "that doesn't mean the...

After much waiting and ample fanfare, Microsoft finally is launching its Windows Server 2003 platform -- and it may be the company's best-ever operating system, according to Forrester analyst Rob Enderle. "If it weren't for the economy, this thing would likely set sales records," he told the E-Comme...

When it comes to choosing a database, size matters -- not so much the size of the database, but the size of the company. Whereas medium to large companies generally select a complex database and then task administrators and developers with building applications around it, small businesses usually ...

Intel faces a tough environment, marked by renewed competition from rivals AMD and Transmeta, sluggish sales of PCs, and skyrocketing Pentium speeds for which no mortal can find a use. With the tech world focused on buying less costly gear, is the world's foremost chipmaker in the twilight of its re...