Having tested XING over many months, Germany's biggest newspaper FAZ came to this conclusion (in short): XING is a place to discuss all kinds of subjects, an entertaining, comprehensive place for dating and hobby forums where you can find friends and your partner for life maybe. But as a business contact tool it is not suitable at all.

"Das Web-2.0-Konstrukt Xing, glauben wir, hat die besten Zeiten schon hinter sich. Aus unserer Sicht ist es ein unterhaltsames Panoptikum für alle Themen der Welt, ein vielseitiges Flirt- und Hobby-Forum, in dem man Freund und Lebenspartner finden kann. Für berufliche Zwecke erscheint uns Xing kaum geeignet, denn Kontrakte und Kontakte machen wir immer noch persönlich und am Telefon. Daran hat auch Web 2.0 nichts geändert. Die virtuelle Gemeinschaft vermittelt nur das Gefühl, ein wenig näher am Geschäft zu sein. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall."

I agree with this statement, having just unsubscribed from it as well. While it was possible to find certain contacts in the IT community, having used it for one of our clients in business development, I saw little prospect of bottom line results with it. I think that the members are mostly freelancers and job-seekers who use it as an inexpensive tool to maybe some day land a freelance or full-time job, and then it pays for itself. If nothing comes of it, and that is probably the case for most people, it does not do any harm either, as expectations are anyway very low. An analogy would be installing a low-cost software package and testing it on your PC -- if it is not exactly what you were looking for you simply de-install it. The very same business model is what the XING people seem to be after...

More than 2000 applications are available already for the iPhone. My own favorite ones right now are:

• Salesforce Mobile, in case you use salesforce.com as a CRM tool, access is available with the iPhone now too
• Swissquote, leading Swiss online broker
• Currency, showing you the latest exchange rates
• 20min, nice online version of the popular free Swiss newspaper
• NetNewsWire, RSS reader providing me with the latest online news
• Bloomberg, news headlines and a quick overview of the world stock markets
• NYTimes, New York Times news, business articles and latest photos
• PangeaVR, great tool to see 360 degree panoramas, amazing what's technically possible already
• GottaGo, front end for all public transportation in Switzerland, great tool
• iOlympics, latest news, events, schedules, sports and country specific news
• ZIP codes, let's you find zip codes or towns and provides quick access to maps
• Labyrinth LE, my kids liked it!
• DizzyBeeFree, dito
• Shazam and midomi, in case I hear a song on the radio that I like and want to buy, I can identify it now within a few seconds...

The now not so new CEO of Siemens has a far from easy job, it seems. Ever since he took over he has had to fight problems that looked smaller when he took over, while at the same time also needs to position the company for the future.

Now it seems like Siemens is in a clean-up mode. Not only with its bribing past but also with a range of business units itself. After Siemens announced the sale of the phone business (Gigaset lines we all know so well) it now looks like they also want to sell their PC joint venture with Fujitsu. One possible buyer could be Lenovo as rumours say. I am not an insider of course with Siemens so have no idea on its strategy but what has been irritating me for quite some time with Siemens is that they prefer to sell or close business units that are in tough markets rather than trying to fix things and do what is needed to become a viable player there as well. From the outside it appears as if they run away from problems rather than facing them. While this might fix issues short term, I wonder what they will do when things get tougher in the remaining business units as well? Selling would mean Siemens becomes a financial institute with no products or solutions at the end. Companies like Nokia with its handset business or Swatch with watches have shown that you do not need to run away from highly competitive, low-margin businesses but can turn things around and become a profitable business. This of course would mean you become the best in your product market and not a simple also-run. At some time they need to face the enemy I guess.

Overview

The North American venture capital association (NVCA) published its quarterly report on venture capital investment activities. Quarterly investment activity was essentially flat compared to the first quarter of 2008 when $7.5 billion was invested in 977 deals. Growth in the Clean Technology and Internet-Specific sectors contributed to the solid level of investing seen in the quarter.

The 3 Winners

• Industrial/Energy had a positive quarter with $1.2 billion going into 89 deals, an increase in both deals and dollars from the first quarter when $915 million went into 68 deals.
  
• The Clean Tech sector, which crosses traditional MoneyTree industries and comprises alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation, reached an all-time quarterly high in investment dollars with $883.6 million going into 65 deals.
  
• The Media and Entertainment industry also saw an increase in dollars invested, rising 25 percent over the prior quarter to $586 million going into 110 deals.

The 3 Losers

• The Life Sciences sector (Biotechnology and Medical Devices combined) saw a 14 percent drop in VC investing in the second quarter with $1.9 billion going into 209 deals, a nine percent drop in deals from the first quarter of 2008.
  
• The Semiconductor industry, with $328 million invested into 39 deals, sunk to its lowest investment level since Q4 2001.
  
• The dollar value of first-time deals (companies receiving venture capital for the first time) declined 12 percent with $1.6 billion going into 301 companies.
  

International investments:
(These are out of the scope and are reported separately)

• In the second quarter of 2008, U.S.-based venture capitalists invested $583 million into 47 deals in China, nearly doubling investment from the first quarter when $296 million went into 34 deals.
  
• Investments into India by U.S. venture capitalists also jumped, rising 27 percent to $473 million going into 40 deals, compared to the $373.3 million going into 40 deals in the first quarter.