SIX Swiss Exchange upgrades platform; introduces co-lo services

SIX Swiss Exchange has successfully completed the upgrade of its trading platform. The upgrade was developed in collaboration with Nasdaq OMX.

At the same time, SIX Swiss Exchange is launching a co-location service for the new platform in association with Equinix. Starting today, SIX Swiss Exchange offers participants the most modern trading technology in the world.
SIX Swiss Exchange has successfully completed the upgrade of its SWXess trading platform with the X-stream INET technology developed by NASDAQ OMX. SIX Swiss Exchange is the first exchange globally to combine the triedand- tested capabilities of the X-stream platform with INET trading technology - the world's fastest.

On April 23, SIX Swiss Exchange launched equity trading using the very latest technology. With this step, SIX Swiss Exchange is investing in the future and in the international growth of Switzerland as a highly successful trading center. Together with the new co-location service, the system upgrade means that much higher order volumes (capacity) can be matched and executed in a significantly shorter time (latency). This is supported by the efficient and standardized trading protocols, which are also in use at various trading venues. Tests under trading conditions have shown that average round-trip latency is just 37 microseconds.
Each and every participant benefits from this low latency, which is unparalleled on any exchange world-wide. Thanks to low latency, participants can put their investment decisions into effect and adjust and reduce their investment risk even faster. Rapid trading, and market data that is distributed with equally low latency, are also key to participants investing or market-making in ETFs, ETPs or structured products. The latest enhancements allow price movements in underlyings to be identified more quickly, and the corresponding investment and market-making decisions to be executed more effectively.

Current differences in system performance which have resulted from non-Swiss participants' geographical distance from the trading platform, for example, will be a thing of the past following the launch of the co-location service. Existing and new SIX Swiss Exchange clients can now operate their trading systems in close proximity to the Exchange's matching engine, with the same performance for all.
Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange: "We have seen the number of participants, the number of securities listed and the number of trading transactions rise strongly in the last two years. By upgrading our trading platform and launching our co-location service, we are keeping pace with the expansion of SIX Swiss Exchange. Today represents the next major milestone in our continuous pursuit of best-in-class services. Client focus combined with state-ofthe- art technology are essential to attracting additional liquidity. Right now, we are setting a new standard for trading, risk management and the future growth of SIX Swiss Exchange."
Lars Ottersgård, Senior Vice President NASDAQ OMX Market Technology: "SIX Swiss Exchange has always been in the technology forefront and today's technology upgrade truly reinforces their position in the global exchange arena. The ultra-low latency enabled by X-stream INET, in combination with functionality and throughput advantages, puts SIX Swiss Exchange in a prime position to attract new volumes and members to its markets."
Marco Dottarelli, Managing Director, Equinix (Switzerland) GmbH: "Switzerland continues to be one of the most competitive financial centers in the world. With Platform Equinix we are fully committed to fulfill the specific requirements of exchanges and other financial services institutions. The Xstream INET platform and the colocation service inside our Zurich data center will provide an even more attractive offering to the financial services community. This guarantees very low latency and the possibility for market participants to increase their trading capacity constantly."

Large enterprises handing off data center builds

from www.networkworld.com:

>>Even companies such as Google and Yahoo, which are known for building their own cutting-edge data centers, are supplementing in-house development with third-party providers including Equinix, which specializes in network-neutral data centers and interconnection services.
"They'll come to Equinix for the network hubs when they need low latency and access to multiple networks," says Mark Adams, chief development officer at Equinix. "We're a critical component in many of the major content companies' architecture and infrastructure."

HTC moving away from QWERTY keyboards in future smartphones

from www.mobileburn.com:

>>"As a company, the QWERTY keyboard we're moving away from in general."

Zellweger then went on to say that the future of QWERTY on smartphones will likely revolve from newer haptic technologies that are being worked into software based, on-screen keyboards. He also feels that hardware-based keyboards, while still somewhat in demand, would not allow HTC to move forward the designs of its smartphones.

"We feel that putting too much effort into that [QWERTY] would take away from our devices."

Equinix Spreads Cloud Love

Stifel Nicolaus removed Equinix from its Select List,

from http://wallstcheatsheet.com:

>>Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX): Stifel Nicolaus removed Equinix from its Select List, citing valuation. However, the firm maintains a Buy rating on the stock.

Samsung Outsold Apple In Smartphones In Q1, Analyst Says

from Forbes: 

>>Next Tuesday, Apple will report results for the March quarter. The Street is expecting the company to sell in the vicinity of 32-33 million iPhones for the quarter. That’s a lot of smartphones. But it might not be anywhere close enough to make the company the calendar Q1 smartphone champion.
ACI Research analyst Edward Zabitsky asserts in a research note that Samsung in the quarter sold over 40 million smartphones, grabbing the title of global smartphone unit king.

Touch Technology

from chicagotonight.wttw.com:

>>Imagine a game of Angry Birds in which you could actually feel the tension of a slingshot before propelling a squawking fowl into a group of thieving pigs.
That’s exactly the kind of ‘feeling’ researchers hope to add to touchscreen devices one day.

Equinix Price Target Increased to $180.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

from http://zolmax.com:

>>Equities research analysts at Citigroup (NYSE: C) boosted their price target on shares of Equinix  from $154.00 to $180.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock.

InMobi Selects Carpathia Hosting as Strategic Worldwide Managed Hosting Partner

InMobi's secure, scalable environment currently includes hundreds of servers, hosting over 1.5 Gbps of network traffic and is spread among Equinix data centers in San Jose and London, with the proposed addition of Hong Kong in the near future. By leveraging Carpathia to deliver managed infrastructure and network as a service, InMobi was able to expand into new geographic markets and avoid significant capital expenditures, while maintaining the highest level of support for its critical infrastructure.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/inmobi-selects-carpathia-hosting-as-strategic-worldwide-managed-hosting-partner-2012-04-17

HiWave announces stereo Bluetooth wireless speaker design; delivers 2 x13W burst audio and over 30 hours playback

HiWave Technologies, the provider of electronic and transducer solutions for audio and haptic touch, has announced a stereo Bluetooth wireless speaker reference design that provides 2 x13W burst power and runs for 30 hours (around 45 albums) from its small, 2200mAh Li-ion battery. Speakers based on the design enable users to stream audio from Bluetooth enabled phones, tablets and laptops.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hiwave-announces-stereo-bluetooth-wireless-speaker-design-delivers-2-x13w-burst-audio-and-over-30-hours-playback-2012-04-16

A closer look at Equinix’s ecosystems

Read the whole post at Telecom Ramblings: 

>>Equinix finished 2011 with 4,317 customers, excluding smaller clients inherited through the Virtu acquisition in East Netherlands.  While looking at customer count may not be necessarily indicative of revenues, the exercise of analyzing this metric may be interesting to see local strengths, as building ecosystems (or communities of interests, as TeleCity calls them) is one of the best ways to ensure the success of a data center, especially if you have magnet customers among them.

Nokia And RIM: A Tale Of Two Pasts

Read the whole article at Seeking Alpha: 

>>Nokia (NOK) and RIM (RIMM) share a similar fate, a kind of backward evolution which is turning them into entities less suited to survive in today's smartphone market: both companies seem to represent the past of something (consumer and enterprise handsets, respectively), rather than players with a viable future, and several analysts have already started writing their obituaries.

Both companies changed the handsets market, at one stage, through their contribution to the development of GSM and the introduction of the first "smartphones" (Nokia), and by marrying email with mobility (RIM). Customers, however, have turned their back to their most recent offerings, and both companies are struggling, with new CEOs, to reinvent themselves into something different.

A quick look at both companies' great pasts.

Samsung says to unveil new Galaxy S smartphone on May 3

from Yahoo: 

>>Samsung Electronics Co (KSC:005930) said on Monday it would unveil the third-generation of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S on May 3 in London, banking on a heavy marketing campaign heading into the summer Olympics in the city.
Samsung became the world's top smartphone maker last year on the back of strong sales of Galaxy lineups and the latest edition comes after it released Galaxy S II in late April last year.
The South Korean firm sold over 40 million Galaxy smartphones since the model was released in June 2010.

OpenMarket co-locates Sydney data centre to meet customer demand

from www.techworld.com.au:

>>OpenMarket Australia country manager, Jonathan Morgan, told Computerworld Australia the company also chose the location due to close proximity to its Sydney head office. The company began its Australian operations in March 2010 when OpenMarket acquired the holdings of MX Telecom. It currently has five staff and two offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

“The facility is primarily for Australian companies who wish to have local processing but it might also be used by Asian customers who have the same requirements,” he said. “Over time, it will be used to replicate the gateways we have in the US, Europe and Singapore so it will become one of our six global data centres.”

Chicago Board Options Exchange plots move to Secaucus

from www.nj.com: 

>>Hence the move to Secaucus. Doing so will shave execution times down to as low as 100 to 300 microseconds, said Gerald O’Connell, chief information officer at CBOE. A millisecond is a thousandth of a second, while a microsecond is a millionth of a second.

Gerald O'Connell, chief information officer of CBOE

The exchange’s main electronic trading platform will be moved into a facility known as NY4, an otherwise anonymous warehouse that sits alongside Secaucus Road. The size of several football fields, the two-story building is a modern marvel of electrical systems, fiber optics and air-conditioning to keep countless computer cabinets running day and night, O’Connell said. And it is all mostly unmanned.
Already, CBOE houses two of its electronic exchanges at NY4 – its secondary options market C2 came online there when it was launched in 2010, and it moved an associated stock exchange there from Chicago last year. In addition to its flagship options platform, the exchange also will move the matching engines for its futures exchange and single-stock futures exchange to Secaucus. Meanwhile, it completed its purchase of the National Stock Exchange in Jersey City in January. Operations, however, still will be monitored from Chicago, where its backup facilities will remain.

Bond Fair Pricing, YTM, Risk and CDS Calculator

Bond Fair Pricing, YTM, Risk and CDS Calculator

An easy-to-use tool to calculate a bond fair pricing, its YTM or get a risk indicator (CDS spread) for any issuer.

The application is structured into two parts.

The first part of the application calculates the "fair pricing" of a bond given a few basic inputs, like CDS spread (issuer risk), coupon, coupon frequency and maturity value and date.
The "fair pricing" is a relatively complex calculation that combines the perceived risk of the issuer with the assumed (and updated) risk-free asset (AAA government bonds for European issuers or Treasury bonds for US Companies), and resulting in a price indication, that, however, does not take liquidity into consideration.

The second part of the application calculates the CDS spread based on inputs like coupon, coupon frequency, issuer price, market price and maturity date and value.
Knowing the updated CDS spread for a specific issuer may be useful as it allows an immediate comparison with other issuers (both in the same sector or in different sectors), or even sovereign issuers – which can also be calculated with this tool.

KEY FEATURES
- Calculate a specific bond’s fair pricing based on a few simple inputs.
- Estimate the up-to-date market default risk (CDS) associated with a bond issuer, based on simple inputs related to one (or more) of its bonds.
- Accurate YTM available in both calculations.



Available at this link. 

3 steps to creating the next big app

from www.fiercedeveloper.com:

 >>One way to create a more engaging and immersive experience can be borrowed from the video game console world. For years haptic effects have provided realistic rumble or force feedback in video games. For gamers, it gives a sense of realism as they engage in virtual surroundings. The technology has made its way into mobile devices; recently Grand Theft Auto III from Rockstar Games used haptic effects to create a console-like gaming experience on Android devices where users can feel every punch and kick they land in a fight. The key to success is to enhance the action of the app with haptics, and not overwhelm the user, and by using proper haptic design tools and techniques, the developer can minimize battery impact.

Wells Fargo Reiterates an 'Outperform' on Equinix (EQIX); Channel Checks Indicate Compelling Data Points

from ww.streetinsider.com: 

>>Wells fargo maintains an 'Outperform' on Equinix price target range raised from $150-160 to $192-205.

Analyst, Gary Powell, said, "It sounds like EQIX continues to gain traction with managed hosting/cloud providers and that the ecosystem is slowly helping EQIX improve growth in the enterprise segment, which has historically lagged other verticals. In addition, demand in key markets like Silicon Valley, Washington, DC and New York are strong and trends in Chicago are improving. Lastly, we heard EQIX won a couple of larger deals that could help trends in Q2/Q3.

Jamba recent sell-off a buying opportunity, says Capstone

from www.theflyonthewall.com:

>>Capstone would use recent weakness in Buy rated Jamba as a buying opportunity. The firm believes its discounted valuation is unwarranted and notes the company is entering a new growth stage following its turnaround efforts. Price target raised to $2.50 from $2.20.

Smartphone sales to touch 1 billion-unit mark in 2014: Credit Suisse

from Yahoo:

>>Global smartphones annual sales will cross the billion-unit mark in 2014, helped by strong demand from China and the launch of cheaper low-end handsets, Credit Suisse said.
..

The analysts also expects Samsung — the world's number two smartphone maker — and Huawei to gain market share.
But they said there are increasing signs of vulnerability for Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, HTC Corp and Sony Corp, and predicted a rapid decline for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.