IBM Breaks U.S. Patent Record, Tops Patent List for 19th Consecutive Year

At this point, IBM’s annual patent leadership is almost a bit of a yawner.

IBM announced today it set a new U.S. patent record in 2011, marking the 19th consecutive year that the company has led the annual list of patent recipients. IBM inventors earned a record 6,180 U.S. patents in 2011, more than quadrupling Hewlett-Packard’s issuances and exceeding by six times those of Oracle/Sun.

You know, the awe-inspiring, intellectual property-excited kind of yawn.

I say that, because IBM announced it set a new U.S. patent record in 2011, marketing the 19^th consecutive year the company has led the annual list of patent recipients.

IBM inventors earned a record 6,180 U.S. patents in 2011, more than quadrupling Hewlett-Packard’s issuances and exceeding by six times those of Oracle/Sun.

Averaged out, that’s 16.93 patents per day!

In 2011, more than 8,000 IBMers residing in 46 different U.S. States and 36 countries were responsible for the company’s record-breaking 2011 patent tally.

IBM inventors who reside outside the U.S. contributed to more than 26% of the company’s 2011 patents.

The more than 6,000 patents IBMers received in 2011 represent a range of inventions that enable new innovations and add significant value to the company’s products, services, including smarter solutions for retail, banking, healthcare, transportation and other industries.

These patented inventions also span a wide range of computing technologies poised to support a new generation of more cognitive, intelligent and insight-driven systems, processes and infrastructures for smarter commerce, shopping, medicine, transportation, and more.

TurboTech: Netflix/Qwikster, HP rumors, Facebook follies, Twitter ads

So Scott and I recorded our latest “TurboTech” episode yesterday, and no sooner did we record the bit about Meg Whitman maybe taking over as CEO of HP than it seems like it’s actually gonna be a done deal.

That’s okay, things move fast in this industry, and it’s kind of like that old joke about how you don’t have to outrun the leopard — you just have to outrun the slowest gazelle.

In this case, I’m not sure if Scott’s the gazelle and I’m the leopard, or if Meg Whitman’s the leopard and Leo Apotheker’s the gazelle, but whatever the case, things change, watch us move your cheese.

We talked about that, the Netflix marketing debacle, and the latest changes on Facebook (which pretty much everyone seems to hate).

Me, I’m off to India tomorrow, and will be hanging in the IT hub of Bangalore for a week.  I hope to take lots of pics and NOT lose my camera there this go around, and am very much looking forward to some of that lovely South and North India Cuisine and to seeing all my IBM India friends.  Put some Kingfishers on ice, gang, I’ll be there momentarily.

Enjoy this episode, and the next dispatch may just be a video one from the streets of Bangalore, where crossing through traffic’s like riding in a sub-contintental rodeo with motor rickshaws and motorbikes!

Yeeee-hawwww, Sahib!

New developerWorks Podcast: Steve Jobs, HP, Motorola, Turbo’s 20th

This has been a crazy Friday, so I didn’t have much time to blog.

But, Scott Laningham and I were able to cut our first developerWorks “videopodcast,” where we covered some of the major recent IT and tech news, including the announcement of Steve Jobs resignation (I apologize in advance for saying his name both ways!), HP/Autonomy deal, Google/Motorola, and even a few bits on my 20th anniversary with Big Blue.

For those of you in the path of Irene, please be safe and heed all the warnings of your public officials.  We’ll be thinking about you all along the East Coast down here in drought-laden Texas.  We need some rain, but we prefer it not come in the form of a hurricane (although I’m sure some farmers in South Texas might argue with me about now).

Here in Austin, the forecast has us at around 109 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow.  Yikes!

Old New Toys

I’ve been following this whole HP TouchPad fire sale with much amusement.

I stopped by my friendly Best Buy late last week to take a stroll and try to avoid temptation (it’s a willpower thing) to buy something, anything.

The HP TouchPads were sitting on their pedestal at the end of aisle, all lonely and glancing wantonly over the aisle at the iPad 2s, which had actual humans picking them up and playing with them.

The whole thing reminded me of “Toy Story 3,” where the old toys never get played with by the kids.  Only in this saga, the old toys were the new toys, and the new toys old, and it was the old new toys getting played with and not the new old toys!

Then, HP announces its decision that it’s going to sell of its PC unit (Wait a minute, didn’t we do that back in 2005??), and lowers the price on the HP TouchPad –- a liquidation event of the HP Way kind –- offering up 16GB TouchPads for a bargain basement $99!!

So, then the market, with complete rational unrationality, goes nutso, and the next thing you know, HP TouchPads are selling on eBay for upwards of $300!

Mon dieu, I love this industry.  And people wonder why I’ve stuck around here for 20 years?  It’s never a dull moment!

Although I have to say, I’m not completely in love with the fact that HP’s leaving the PC biz.

I bought one of their computers last year.  I’m an equal opportunity PC purchaser.  I own an Acer netbook, a MacBook and MacBook Pro, an IBM ThinkPad, the HP Pavilion, and this Dell Latitude that I’ve been using recently and am really digging.

I bought the HP ‘cause I loved the keyboard – it felt just like the MacBook keyboard, only without the MacBook price.  Hey, when you write a lot, keyboards matter.

I think I got the HP Pavilion at Office Depot for also a good price, around $550 (with rebate).  Now I’m wondering if I can put it up for sell on eBay for $1,000, see if I can’t tap into some of that HP sentimentality!

Of course, I paid some beaucoup bucks for my first gen iPad back in April of 2010.  And I didn’t even have good reason to buy the thing – I just gave in to temptation.  But after over a year’s use now, and having traveled the globe with the thing, I have to say, I’m a pretty happy iPad camper.

I’ve used it for everything from reading books and magazines and newspapers online (my primary use), to playing video games, to watching Netflix, to writing blog posts.  Tablet computing’s time has come, although if you forced me to admit it, I’d explain that I really do miss the mouse while using an iPad.

Someone still needs to build the better mouse for tablets!

In the meantime, I’m going to share soon the fruits of another new technology experience I’ve had, that of working with Nuance’s Dragon Dictation 11 software.

People have worried me for years about the day I would start talking to my computer.  I’m here to tell you, that day has come — and it’s not pretty.

The moment it starts talking back, I’ll know I’m in trouble.

HP Gets A Mobile Hand From Palm

You can certainly count on one of two things when I’m traveling overseas, particularly in Asia.

There will either be a natural disaster in the vicinity, or a major tech acquisition.

In May 2008 in a trip to Beijing, it was both: I felt the tremors on the far outskirts of the Sichuan quake in China, and HP announced it’s intent to acquire EDS.

Today, while in Sydney, though the real ground isn’t quaking, there was an announcement that HP intended to acquire Palm for $1.2B.

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler suggests the move’s not so much for the hardware, but rather to gain access to Palm’s 1,500+ patents and its webOS, which HP will be able to use in its own slate and mobile operations.

Also, check out ReadWriteWeb’s “smartest tweets” already emerging on this deal.

Whether or not the acquisition will give HP a mobile hand up remains to be seen, but anything that provides a countervailing force to Apple’s iPhone juggernaut and the gaining momentum of the Google Android is probably a good thing.

Meanwhile, back at the IBM mobile computing ranch, I’ll remind you of the strong hand that’s been emerging out of Lotus on this front.

IBM is helping customers big and small get access to their critical business information while on the move, including with products such as IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, IBM Lotus iNotes (for iPhone connectivity), and our VPN solution, IBM Lotus Mobile Connect (which is what I’m often using to stay tethered to the Big Blue Mother ship during my travels.)

To learn more about IBM Lotus mobility solutions, you can sign up for this webcast series.

No natural disasters required.