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Cisco CEO John Chambers raised a red flag during the company’s latest earnings report, saying the summer quarter would be softer than previously expected. Intel CEO Paul Otellini countered, saying economic conditions are good but not great. The truth is somewhere between.

The Russian security company boasts double-digit, faster-than-market growth, fueled by endpoint security sales. By comparison, Kaspersky pointed out how McAfee is in decline following its acquisition by Intel. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, though.

For all the talk about market development, technology maturation and selling technology into verticals, too few solution providers truly understand this lifecycle or how to use it to their advantage. The starting point hasn’t changed in two decades: Pickup “Crossing the Chasm.”

McAfee is looking to bolster its midmarket fortunes with new products and services tailored specifically for the SMB market. Likewise, it’s offering channel partners new incentives and support for attacking and capturing more SMB opportunities.

China’s Huawei Technologies is a repeat target of criticism by competitors and governments as a competitive and security threat. The reality is Huawei is just getting started in the U.S. market and channel, and it’s taking a deliberate approach to building its presence.

Consumers can’t get enough of smartphones and tablets, and that’s driving IT vendors and solution providers to adopt mobile device management. What many consumers don’t know is their devices are heavily subsidized by carriers, who are growing tired of paying for hardware. Will BYOD continue if subsidies are curtailed?

Citrix believes a root cause of the problems in building, managing and securing cloud and mobile systems is solution providers and enterprises continue to apply conventional and dated assumptions about the IT operating environment. Citrix is encouraging partners and customers to do is change their thinking and assume everything is cloud and mobile.

Motorola Solutions is looking to empower partners with new tools for optimizing and securing business wireless networks with a new cloud-based service. The service is intended to insure businesses increasingly dependent upon cloud and mobile device have quality wireless network connectivity.

The partnership between Vu TelePresence and Vidtel will enable users of the video conference technology to collaborate and communicate with non-Vu and competitive platform users, effectively breaking through the garden walls that limit many telepresence solutions.

IT vendors, particularly hardware companies, often talk about “incentives” such as rebates and promotional discounts as means for ensuring partner profitability. The reality is incentives can sometimes have more negative consequences and cut into partner profitability.