After Google’s stock split, investors might have to choose whether to pay a few dollars more for voting rights, even if those rights give them little say over the company. Google (GOOG) co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin remain firmly in control of the Internet juggernaut, after the company paid a one-time dividend to existing shareholders, giving one new nonvoting share for each share already owned. Those new Class C shares on Thursday
Microsoft used its science-fiction video game franchise “Halo” as inspiration for its new voice-controlled personal assistant software. The software gets its name and voice from the artificial intelligence character Cortana from the game series. Microsoft’s speech recognition and response tool for Windows Phone 8.1 is the company’s answer to Apple ‘s (AAPL) Siri and Google ‘s (GOOG) Google Now services. While Siri is known for her corny jokes and lame comebacks, Cortana is a geek icon. In the “Halo” games, the sexy Cortana is a hologram who helps hero Master Chief kill hostile alien monsters by providing useful information when needed. Cortana makes Siri look like Clippy, Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) awkward, much-ridiculed first attempt at a digital assistant for its Office software.
Apple is likely to see market share declines in smartphones and TV set-top boxes as competitors roll out new devices this month, taking advantage of a lull in Apple’s product cycle. Apple ‘s (AAPL) iPhone 5S is facing its first serious competition in the high-end smartphone market with the releases of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and new HTC One, both of which use Google ‘s (GOOG) Android operating system. “With our surveys indicating gradually increasing consumer interest in and pre-order activity for these new Android smartphones, we anticipate new high-end Android smartphones will gain market share vs. the iPhone during the June quarter,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said in a research note Thursday. “We believe Apple will win back meaningful high-end market share during (the second half of) 2014 based on our belief new iPhones with larger screen sizes could create a strong upgrade cycle among Apple’s loyal base.”