Apple has edged out IBM to become the top brand of 2011, according to an annual list from marketing strategy firm Davis Brand Capital. The Cupertino-based company ousted IBM, which topped the list in 2009 and 2010. Apple was previously ranked No.12 in 2009 and No.7 in 2010. Davis evaluates the top 25 brands annually using five categories that go beyond traditional marketing functions. “The annual 2011 Davis Brand Capital 25 ranking evaluates companies’ abilities to manage and balance the five key ...

Cisco announced on Tuesday that it will layoff 9% of its workforce, or 6,500 jobs, in an effort to boost profits. That figure is lower than original speculation that the company would cut 10,000 employees. Cisco made the move as part of an effort to cut $1 billion in annual costs while spurring profit growth, Bloomberg reported. 2,100 of the 6,500 employees have agreed to an early-retirement program. Additionally, Cisco plans to sell a Juarez, Mexico-based manufacturing facility to Foxconn. The move will tran...

Cisco could cut as many as 10,000 jobs — 14% of the company’s employees — in an effort to boost profits, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. 3,000 Cisco employees accepted buyouts and early retirement packages, which will cost Cisco between $500 and $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter. While the layoff plans aren’t final, 7,000 more jobs could be cut by the end of August. The move comes as analysts predict that Cisco’s router and switches business will continue to slide into next year, and...

Today, Cisco announced plans to restructure its business, noting that it will kill off parts of its consumer vertical in an effort to focus on core routing, switching and services, collaboration, architectures, and video. The Flip video camera line will be one casualty of the restructuring, although Cisco says that it will provide current FlipShare customers with a transition plan. The firm said it will also:Refocus Cisco’s Home Networking business for greater profitability and connection to the compan...

Cisco’s annual networking conference, Cisco Live!, is in full swing and the networking giant is unveiling the initial details on several upcoming video-oriented products. For consumer video camera buffs, Cisco is working on a Wi-Fi-enabled version of its popular Flip Video camera. Details are sparse but senior vice president of emerging technologies, Marthin De Beer, did hint that the portable camera may launch in time for the holidays. Cisco is also developing an enterprise-level video transcoding serv...

The iPad might be the cool tablet to own, but for busy business people who really need to get things done, there are things like the Cisco Cius. Announced today, the Cius is what Cisco likes to calls a “mobile collaboration business tablet.” Based on Android, the Cius weighs in at 1.15lbs. and features a 7″ touchscreen display, front-facing camera for multi-party video conferencing that records and streams 720p video at 30 FPS , Bluetooth 3.0 as well as support for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and 3G...

Want to know what’s in those boxes pictured above? We bet you do, and since we love you, we’re going to tell you. They’re AT&T 3G MicroCells. According to several of our AT&T connects, they’ve hot off the delivery truck as AT&T’s national 3G MicroCell rollout has finally begun. Now, we should caution you that we’ve not been able to completely verify that this is nothing more than another one of those boring gradual rollouts, but based upon how many cities we...

Day two’s CTIA keynote speakers are as follows: Dan Hesse, CEO Sprint Nextel Corporation, William Morrow, CEO Clearwire Corporation, Réne Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom AG, Jon Stanton, Chairman of the Board Trilogy International Partners, and Padmasree Warrior, CTO Cisco. Hit the break for the live updates! (more…)

Clearwire may be optimistic about the growth of WiMAX in 2010 and beyond but network hardware manufacturers are a bit more bearish on the 4G wireless technology. Last month, Alcatel Lucent announced it will be scaling back on its WiMAX equipment and focusing on LTE; while popular WiMAX chipset maker Beceem introduced a new WiMAX/LTE multi-mode chipset to be used in devices that will support both wireless technologies. The latest company to join this burgeoning WiMAX exodus is Cisco, which announced plans to d...

A circulating rumor suggests that Cisco is developing a new technology to give the Internet a major speed boost. Details on this rumored technology are sparse but Cisco claims it will “forever change the Internet” and will “show what’s possible when networking gets an adrenaline boost.” The new technology will target telecommunication service providers and will be marketed as a means of improving the customer’s high speed Internet experience which we hope translates into 10...