Optional, but a pain in the ass since you'd have to sideload all the applications since you cannot get it from the Play store.

Bingo.

When it comes to outsourcing/contractors, it is all about the stock numbers. Many places will lay off employees before getting rid of contractors. Payroll hurts stock outlooks while contractors can be buried in the paperwork.

We're starting to Migrate to Windows 7 where I am at. Windows 8 is too untested with our systems to even consider it.

Plus anyways, you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to tell end users where something is at without the safety of the start menu to fall back on?

Government IT of any kind is mostly inept. I used to work on government systems and holy hell were they buggy and prone to downtime.

Simple: In order to complete a call, you have to enter a captcha into the phone (eg, you are told a string of numbers and then must enter them.) Applies to all outgoing calls except for 911. Now where's my 50 quid?

The closest competitor to Intel after AMD is ARM... and I really don't see too many desktops/laptops with ARM. PowerPC is another, but since Apple ran to Intel, they're mostly out of that sector as well with the exception of a few niche machines (such as A-EON's machines meant for the AmigaOS fans).

Because unfortunately many companies focus too much on profit margins and EBITA. My company used the EBITA model and laid off enough production workers and IT support that it ultimately bit us in the ass when our largest client completely changed their requirements for the contact we had with them. The industry I'm in requires everyone to have a clearance, and you just cannot replace that many people who need to pass a 3-7 month federal background investigation on the drop of the hat. Luckily our current CEO (came in after the mass layoff) also hates the word EBITA with a passion.

"Do we even need a space heater division?"

FTFY.

Well, RIM was doing well until Apple decided to release their own smartphone in 2007. The iPhone stole a large chunk of the young female demographic that RIM depended on (before the iPhone, most girls I knew with a smartphone had their crackberries), as well as a large chunk of their executive/business clients (the only member of management still using a using a BlackBerry where I work is our CEO). Also the emergence of Android in the mainstream mobile market has also buried BlackBerry as well.

This. The difference between a Pentium and a Pentium II used to be so staggering that most people would upgrade.

Now, the difference in usability between a Core2Quad (2007) and a Ivy Bridge i5 (2012) is rather minuscule to most home consumers. I know guys who are still using a Q6600 as their primary processor for gaming, and it runs Diablo III fine for them; they don't even overclock. Hell, the only reason I got rid of my ancient Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (from 2006) was primarily because my motherboard crapped the bed (capacitors) and Socket 939 boards in 2010 were too ridiculously overpriced to even justify buying.

The upgrade cycle went from every two years to every 5-7 years. I don't buy a completely new system as often as I used to... even when I do, I still reuse a ton of the parts from the previous one since I tend to add new parts as old ones fail.

There are a ton of companies that fire regular employees first. Having a ton of employees on your payroll hurts your stock prices. Contractors don't. Although contractors are more expensive, that holy stock price is what the shareholders are bitching about.

Yep. It is much easier to hide the cost of hiring contractors from the shareholders than it is to hide the payroll.

Yep. When I got my 1055T, the i5 2500K wasn't out yet. Once Sandy Bridge was released, everyone was looking forward to Bulldozer, but that fell on its face right out of the gate; especially when many of the Phenom II processors bested it in certain areas. It was nowhere close to the i5/i7 Sandy Bridges. Even the i3 wasn't left in the dust either.

tl;dr.

Our news team has learned that C-Level executives lean toward the republicans. Stop the fucking presses.