Today in Tech: The Cyber Monday surge

November 28, 2011: 9:30 AM ET

Fortune's curated selection of newsworthy tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you every day.

* Internet sales on Black Friday jumped to $816 million, up some 26% from last year according to Comscore. Today, Cyber Monday, may very well surpass those figures. Many experts believe today will be the US's busiest online shopping day of the year, with close to 123 million Americans planning to buy something online, according to a survey commissioned by the US National Retail Federation, an industry lobby group. The federation expects 17.8 million Americans to use their mobile device to shop today, about five times the number in 2009. (BBC)

* MarketWatch reports that Amazon says it sold "four times as many Kindle devices on Black Friday as it did last year." The new device -- which aims to give the Apple iPad a run for its money -- costs just $199, compared to $499. (Read a full review here.) The Kindle Fire was the best selling tablet on Amazon.com as well as at Target retail stores.

* Apple sold plenty of iPads, though. Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes that Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster spent the day after Thanksgiving as he has every year since 2008: standing in an Apple retail store counting sales. He observed that, in eight hours, iPads and Macs walked out the door at the rate of 14.8 and 10.1 per hour, respectively. Read the rest here.

* Zynga's chief executive, Mark Pincus, "got an earful from employees last month," reports the New York Times. A story headlined "Zynga's Tough Culture Risks a Talent Drain" says employees have been complaining about the (very) long hours they log in at the social gaming giant. The company's heavy use of metrics to gauge what is and isn't working in its products, such as FarmVille and MafiaWars, has led to tough deadlines and plenty of pressure.

* Android versus iOS versus Windows Phone 7 -- which rules for the enterprise? InformationWeek found out.

* Battle of the tech titans: Ellison vs. Benioff. Fierce competitors need, well, fierce competitors. The latest smack-down? Oracle billionaire CEO Larry Ellison vs. Salesforce.com billionaire CEO Marc Benioff. Benioff once worked for Ellison, who later invested in Salesforce.com, the cloud-computing software company. No matter: Now the two battle for customers -- as well as bragging rights as the world's most visible software mogul. The rivalry is getting testy, check it out here. (Fortune)

Don't miss the latest tech news. Sign up now to get Today in Tech emailed each and every morning.

Join the Conversation
Featured Newsletters

Every morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines.

Receive Fortune's newsletter on all the deals that matter, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. SUBSCRIBE

Covering the digital giants of Silicon Valley and beyond, an in-depth look at enterprise companies, and the startups disrupting them. Emailed twice weekly.

Anne Fisher answers career-related questions and offers helpful advice for business professionals.

Company Price Change % Change
Bank of America Corp... 7.17 0.19 2.72%
Dell Inc 12.49 -2.59 -17.18%
Ford Motor Co 10.41 0.22 2.16%
Microsoft Corp 29.11 -0.65 -2.18%
General Electric Co 19.18 0.00 0.00%
Data as of 4:05pm ET
Index Last Change % Change
Dow 12,496.15 -6.66 -0.05%
Nasdaq 2,850.12 11.04 0.39%
S&P 500 1,318.86 2.23 0.17%
Treasuries 1.72 -0.07 -4.02%
Data as of 6:02pm ET
Most Popular
Stocks erase hefty losses
 
Facebook IPO: What the %$#! happened?
 
HP to cut 27,000 jobs
 
HP prepares to announce mass layoffs
 
Investors sue Facebook, Morgan Stanley
 
Powered by WordPress.com VIP.