2275 research blvd Suite 500 Rockville
Captains of Industry
Captains of Industry
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Gang,
I am trying to get us reconvened --- tell me which of the following dates would work: Oct 18,19,26.
Ron Gots has made his conference room available, his address to follow.
We have a copy of Chris Walker's goodbye letter. Look
Talk to you soon,
Tom
Friday, April 8, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Ways the internet affects our society
Our next meeting is about the effect of the Internet on our society and and the internet's effect on our respective businesses. The following video has some interesting thoughts about this and also presents the information in a very unique way. You will enjoy this. Click below.
Friday, March 11, 2011
A New Era of Software Apps
Both Google and Apple are committed to the phone as a software platform. This tidal wave pulls along several subsidiary industries -- -- smart phone chip manufacturers, telecoms, phone manufacturers, sim cards; and it will turn out the whole software industry. Google and Apple by their strategic direction and commitment have created a technological tsunami; like it or not, the existing software companies cannot swim against the tide. The good news is that new companies who see the strategic direction can harness it with breakthrough agile products that gain a foothold and market share in a fraction of the previous cost and time.
Google's and Apple’s strategic direction includes: ubiquitous phone computing and connectivity, cloud computing, and synchronization with PCs and Macintosh computers. So not only will the shrink wrap software companies have to adapt to PC apps they will also have to port to smart phones and provide synchronization. All apps come from the cloud, all data stored in the cloud, all PCs are synced, and smart phones are synced. Portability across computers and ‘on the street’ mobility are key features. Any computer can access the app and use synchronized and ( in some cases) real time collaborated data The same apps work on a PC or Mac and also on iPhones and Android phones.
The web site for serious business apps is called Google app marketplace --- https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home?marketId=0. The web site for the fun and games Google apps is: https://chrome.google.com/webstore?hl=en-US.
A parallel Apple Mac apps universe exists that is 7 times larger. The iPhone has of the order 350,000 apps, most of which are on their way to becoming Mac apps. IPhone and android app marketplace is expected to double next year to $38 billion -- -- most of this will be up drafted to Macs and PCs.
The cloud apps have a radically lower price point -- a beginner’s license typically free, professional license radically lower than shrink-wrapped software. This will further democratize the software business attracting a wider base of new users with novel software ideas.
The primary target here of Google and Apple is the consumer market, not the corporate market. They create value for the end user, consumer based software. They create high value with ease-of-use so compelling that is seeps bottom up into the corporate world. It’s better, quicker, and affordable -- winning first the guy on the street who won’t put up with 2nd rate corporate software.
Microsoft is going in the opposite direction, ‘up the food chain’ targeting Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM.
The easy availability of apps will bring a Renaissance in science, education, democracy, and literature. No longer will the G5 countries or the G20 industrial nations completely dominate the world's technology, science, art,... New companies with a more agile infrastructure will be more competitive than dinosaurs with shrink-wrapped expensive software. The new platform is much less expensive and companies can experiment with new ways of reaching customers and new infrastructure with small cost and small investment, quickly outpacing slow-moving industrial software infrastructure.
This is a new renaissance for entrepreneurs. The startup cost for a new app is orders of magnitude less than shrink-wrapped software. Also, there is an instant platform and a crowd sourcing mechanism that percolates the best ideas to the top automatically as a function of downloads and reputation. Say ‘goodbye’ to the three-piece marketing executive and high priced salesman; this is software done by social democracy with no middleman.
We will see new companies, new ideas, and new revenue streams. Paradigms like ‘cash cow’ will be anachronisms replaced by high-value low cost consumer based monetization.
Some shrink-wrapped companies will adapt (SalesForce, SAP, Quicken), most not ( IBM ), and some following but too late (Microsoft) . Microsoft is a ‘dollar short and an hour late’; starting its own late cumbersome cloud imitative and a marginalized windows phone 7 app market -- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/default.aspx . Only entrenched corporate customers will use this, but not for long.
The death rattle of slow-moving software companies will have several stages. The first victims will put their head in the ground and not provide easy-to-use PC apps. The second set of casualties will be caused by ignoring the smart phone platform in trying to survive purely with PC apps -- -- both will be required. The third set of casualties will be caused by ignoring collaboration and integration.
Socializing software apps and using crowd sourcing is inherent to the new paradigm -- -- ignore it and go the way of the dinosaurs. Also inherent is integration with both the cloud and the standard documents -- -- in Google's case there are Google documents, Google spreadsheets, Google power point etc.
Beside Google and Apple there are other minor league players here -- -- Firefox, Amazon, AT&T, Windows Phone 7 -- -- becoming a marginalized player is none other than Microsoft. A parallel app platform is Facebook which has the social platform built in. Currently most of the Facebook apps are games but Facebook’s strategic direction is as a social platform for software applications, they believe that most existing applications can be socialized. The socialization of software apps and shrink-wrapped software is a parallel strong strategic pull that will manifest over the next couple of years – it will both propel the companies that do it well and burry the companies that ignore it.
Google and Apple’s open app platform gives them a ‘first to see it’ huge strategic advantage. They each see hundreds of new app ideas each day and will be the first to see the new breakthrough idea that changes the landscape – and have the first chance to scale it up.
Google's and Apple’s strategic direction includes: ubiquitous phone computing and connectivity, cloud computing, and synchronization with PCs and Macintosh computers. So not only will the shrink wrap software companies have to adapt to PC apps they will also have to port to smart phones and provide synchronization. All apps come from the cloud, all data stored in the cloud, all PCs are synced, and smart phones are synced. Portability across computers and ‘on the street’ mobility are key features. Any computer can access the app and use synchronized and ( in some cases) real time collaborated data The same apps work on a PC or Mac and also on iPhones and Android phones.
The web site for serious business apps is called Google app marketplace --- https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home?marketId=0. The web site for the fun and games Google apps is: https://chrome.google.com/webstore?hl=en-US.
A parallel Apple Mac apps universe exists that is 7 times larger. The iPhone has of the order 350,000 apps, most of which are on their way to becoming Mac apps. IPhone and android app marketplace is expected to double next year to $38 billion -- -- most of this will be up drafted to Macs and PCs.
The cloud apps have a radically lower price point -- a beginner’s license typically free, professional license radically lower than shrink-wrapped software. This will further democratize the software business attracting a wider base of new users with novel software ideas.
The primary target here of Google and Apple is the consumer market, not the corporate market. They create value for the end user, consumer based software. They create high value with ease-of-use so compelling that is seeps bottom up into the corporate world. It’s better, quicker, and affordable -- winning first the guy on the street who won’t put up with 2nd rate corporate software.
Microsoft is going in the opposite direction, ‘up the food chain’ targeting Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM.
The easy availability of apps will bring a Renaissance in science, education, democracy, and literature. No longer will the G5 countries or the G20 industrial nations completely dominate the world's technology, science, art,... New companies with a more agile infrastructure will be more competitive than dinosaurs with shrink-wrapped expensive software. The new platform is much less expensive and companies can experiment with new ways of reaching customers and new infrastructure with small cost and small investment, quickly outpacing slow-moving industrial software infrastructure.
This is a new renaissance for entrepreneurs. The startup cost for a new app is orders of magnitude less than shrink-wrapped software. Also, there is an instant platform and a crowd sourcing mechanism that percolates the best ideas to the top automatically as a function of downloads and reputation. Say ‘goodbye’ to the three-piece marketing executive and high priced salesman; this is software done by social democracy with no middleman.
We will see new companies, new ideas, and new revenue streams. Paradigms like ‘cash cow’ will be anachronisms replaced by high-value low cost consumer based monetization.
Some shrink-wrapped companies will adapt (SalesForce, SAP, Quicken), most not ( IBM ), and some following but too late (Microsoft) . Microsoft is a ‘dollar short and an hour late’; starting its own late cumbersome cloud imitative and a marginalized windows phone 7 app market -- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/default.aspx . Only entrenched corporate customers will use this, but not for long.
The death rattle of slow-moving software companies will have several stages. The first victims will put their head in the ground and not provide easy-to-use PC apps. The second set of casualties will be caused by ignoring the smart phone platform in trying to survive purely with PC apps -- -- both will be required. The third set of casualties will be caused by ignoring collaboration and integration.
Socializing software apps and using crowd sourcing is inherent to the new paradigm -- -- ignore it and go the way of the dinosaurs. Also inherent is integration with both the cloud and the standard documents -- -- in Google's case there are Google documents, Google spreadsheets, Google power point etc.
Beside Google and Apple there are other minor league players here -- -- Firefox, Amazon, AT&T, Windows Phone 7 -- -- becoming a marginalized player is none other than Microsoft. A parallel app platform is Facebook which has the social platform built in. Currently most of the Facebook apps are games but Facebook’s strategic direction is as a social platform for software applications, they believe that most existing applications can be socialized. The socialization of software apps and shrink-wrapped software is a parallel strong strategic pull that will manifest over the next couple of years – it will both propel the companies that do it well and burry the companies that ignore it.
Google and Apple’s open app platform gives them a ‘first to see it’ huge strategic advantage. They each see hundreds of new app ideas each day and will be the first to see the new breakthrough idea that changes the landscape – and have the first chance to scale it up.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Brave New World of Software Applications -- The Office of the Future
I'm writing this to describe the birth of a new era in software -- -- you no doubt are aware of many of these things but I thought it wise to write anyway. The new era of browser apps is now taking off. The prelude was Apple's iPhone apps and Google Android phone apps that both grew rapidly and offer innovative inexpensively priced software -- -- the apps are extremely easy to order and use.
The prelude is now transitioning to the main act -- -- these apps are no longer restricted to phones, but now work on PCs and Apple MACs. Just like the phone apps there are two classes, Google's marketplace apps ( http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home )and Apple's MAC apps. Each is off to a robust but modest beginning, Apple has around 1000 apps available on its first day of business, Google has around 50. This is only the takeoff point, the number of iPhone apps is a couple of hundred thousand and I expect the number of Mac apps to approach the same number. Correspondingly Android apps number in the tens of thousands and likewise I expect the Google app marketplace to soon number in the tens of thousands.
I believe this is a watershed event for software. A new way to deliver, a new pricing bracket, new innovations, the mixture of both games and industrial-strength software.
One of the strengths of Google marketplace apps is that it's cloud centric; the new third-party apps can integrate and use the well-established classical Google apps -- -- spreadsheets, documents, music files, calendars, pictures.
Another facet of this change is that, for better or worse, Google and Apple will now fully invade the corporate business software environment. Their consumer driven rate of innovation is orders of magnitude faster than present software companies. Hold onto your hat, this stuff is coming fast and furious and the landscape will change faster than we can imagine.
Tien and I will be presenting this new paradigm in our next March 9 meeting.
The prelude is now transitioning to the main act -- -- these apps are no longer restricted to phones, but now work on PCs and Apple MACs. Just like the phone apps there are two classes, Google's marketplace apps ( http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home )and Apple's MAC apps. Each is off to a robust but modest beginning, Apple has around 1000 apps available on its first day of business, Google has around 50. This is only the takeoff point, the number of iPhone apps is a couple of hundred thousand and I expect the number of Mac apps to approach the same number. Correspondingly Android apps number in the tens of thousands and likewise I expect the Google app marketplace to soon number in the tens of thousands.
I believe this is a watershed event for software. A new way to deliver, a new pricing bracket, new innovations, the mixture of both games and industrial-strength software.
One of the strengths of Google marketplace apps is that it's cloud centric; the new third-party apps can integrate and use the well-established classical Google apps -- -- spreadsheets, documents, music files, calendars, pictures.
Another facet of this change is that, for better or worse, Google and Apple will now fully invade the corporate business software environment. Their consumer driven rate of innovation is orders of magnitude faster than present software companies. Hold onto your hat, this stuff is coming fast and furious and the landscape will change faster than we can imagine.
Tien and I will be presenting this new paradigm in our next March 9 meeting.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Thoughts about Apps --- Mathew Reed, Associate of Pat Tzanis
Good article. Here are some quick thoughts; I realize some of this goes outside the article's points, but hope it doesn't go too far out.
His stress on the importance of convergence is extremely important. A small scale example of this is that products like ACT! by Sage will continue to loose ground because they have not continued to improve their convergence systems; ACT! still mentions PalmOS sync which was modern at the time, however this has not been updated to meet the expectations of users who expect realtime information without having to be tethered. If they developed a turn key server component for cloud service providers as apposed to end users it would be a perfect utilization of cloud services; ACT!'s primary target are smaller environments for which the expense of securely hosting their own Internet accessible collaboration servers would be beyond the point of diminished return, thus creating a server product that would be targeted to companies like Rackspace and other cloud providers to offer along side their existing storage and collaboration options for rates of $5 - $12 / month per user would be an effective way to update their offering to be in sync with the current times, work flow, and user's data availability expectations.
This convergence of cloud service providers (CSPs) and handheld devices offers an easily overlooked opportunity: a higher margin direct market while keeping the same endpoint market; a software company offering a small scale collaboration, groupware, or CRM system, for example, may have restricted their server R&D effort to be compatible with the low budget of their target, however now their target for the server component changes from the end user to the end user's cloud provider. Sell to the cloud provider and now people have a tangible reason to purchase your product over others; if they purchase yours they don't need a dedicated server and can be setup within minutes with reduced IT expense.
This leaves the question of how to sell to the cloud provider; companies like Rackspace, IBM, etc. would be better ones to answer that. It may come down to how easy it is for them to implement. A turn key GNU/Linux offering that could easily be applied to their existing infrastructure with multi-level administration so that the cloud provider has a dual target audience (direct users and VARs wishing to resell the service) may be the answer.
The handheld and large form factor PDA (LFF-PDA) market is incredibly volatile right now with offers varying by vendor and many companies competing for dominance. As an end user or a company considering standardization, their is no clear answer on the best "platform"; unlike other computer platforms, this market is in such flux that, in all likelihood, any choice made today will be incompatible with applications offered in the near future. As a software developer the choice of which platform(s) on which to focus support is the primary consideration. Each company is trying to gain your, preferably, exclusive support. How does a software developer choose the platform to support? The following points are a start:
See through the marketing: Companies like Apple will try to entice you by saying that the largest number of applications are available for their system. What they don't mention is their flexible definition of "application". Many of these "application" are actually widgets (web front-ends) offering no additional content compared to that offered from the content provider's mobile web page.
Does the platform provider acknowledge that your application is what provides value to their product or do they make you jump through hoops to distribute and gain access to the APIs needed to perform the innovative tasks to differentiate your product in a highly competitive market? Remember, the platform provider works for the application developer, not the reverse.
Is your freedom to establish your own distribution model preserved? Some providers offer only one outlet through which software can be distributed. This has already been shown to retard the progression of innovation as it may be required to remove features competing with offerings from the outlet's parent company. If there is no restriction, you may distribute the software via the store(s) of your choosing and/or self distribute to release faster updates and improvements than your competition.
Do you have the same freedom over the device as you would any other computer? The more freedom you have to control the device with your application the more opportunity there is set your product above the rest.
Is the platform your supporting licensed to multiple hardware vendors? A greater number of hardware vendors that can utilize the platform for which your product is developed will deprioritize the need to cross-develop between platforms thus enabling you to focus finite R&D to innovation rather than redundant development.
The increased priority of handheld and LFF-PDA products are raising their status from supplementary devices to primary devices. The companies that update their offerings accordingly will become dominant while others will suffer. While a supplementary device does not need a powerful offline office suite for files too sensitive to be saved to the cloud, flexible easy to use file sharing, diverse system wide printing ability, external display connectivity for mobile presentations, etc., a primary device does need these. In addition, implementation will be straight forward as it has already been done. Many organizers and PDAs of the 90's had network connectivity, flexible printing, and full featured office suites that rival options on many devices currently. Adopting some of these "primary device" features will also help their adoption as corporate standards. Some of these include:
Flexible centralized management and deploy features: Developing a configuration within an emulator with full applications, settings, etc. that could be easily deployed as an image to the entire company.
Remote support: Powerful remote peer to peer access for easy helpdesk support
Standard docking interface utilizing technology such as UWB and induction charging. By creating a contactless docking interface a low manufacturing cost docking system could be licensed to any accessory provider such as Belkin and many others. This would strengthen the power of this platform against others that are not appreciating the user's expectation and desire that their handheld device be a primary device. In addition, this style of docking system would be compatible with a wide array of physical sizes and form factors.
printing system for which low cost printer divers can easily be developed by any printer vendor.
Netbook convergence: A large form factor device with comfortable keyboard to which the handheld would connect to provide the user with a more comfortable interface to their existing handheld device.
The handheld platforms offer incredible opportunity for cloud providers and software vendors, but one of the points I think this article gets across is that if you don't take advantage of that opportunity you will become a victim of progress.
-Matthew
His stress on the importance of convergence is extremely important. A small scale example of this is that products like ACT! by Sage will continue to loose ground because they have not continued to improve their convergence systems; ACT! still mentions PalmOS sync which was modern at the time, however this has not been updated to meet the expectations of users who expect realtime information without having to be tethered. If they developed a turn key server component for cloud service providers as apposed to end users it would be a perfect utilization of cloud services; ACT!'s primary target are smaller environments for which the expense of securely hosting their own Internet accessible collaboration servers would be beyond the point of diminished return, thus creating a server product that would be targeted to companies like Rackspace and other cloud providers to offer along side their existing storage and collaboration options for rates of $5 - $12 / month per user would be an effective way to update their offering to be in sync with the current times, work flow, and user's data availability expectations.
This convergence of cloud service providers (CSPs) and handheld devices offers an easily overlooked opportunity: a higher margin direct market while keeping the same endpoint market; a software company offering a small scale collaboration, groupware, or CRM system, for example, may have restricted their server R&D effort to be compatible with the low budget of their target, however now their target for the server component changes from the end user to the end user's cloud provider. Sell to the cloud provider and now people have a tangible reason to purchase your product over others; if they purchase yours they don't need a dedicated server and can be setup within minutes with reduced IT expense.
This leaves the question of how to sell to the cloud provider; companies like Rackspace, IBM, etc. would be better ones to answer that. It may come down to how easy it is for them to implement. A turn key GNU/Linux offering that could easily be applied to their existing infrastructure with multi-level administration so that the cloud provider has a dual target audience (direct users and VARs wishing to resell the service) may be the answer.
The handheld and large form factor PDA (LFF-PDA) market is incredibly volatile right now with offers varying by vendor and many companies competing for dominance. As an end user or a company considering standardization, their is no clear answer on the best "platform"; unlike other computer platforms, this market is in such flux that, in all likelihood, any choice made today will be incompatible with applications offered in the near future. As a software developer the choice of which platform(s) on which to focus support is the primary consideration. Each company is trying to gain your, preferably, exclusive support. How does a software developer choose the platform to support? The following points are a start:
See through the marketing: Companies like Apple will try to entice you by saying that the largest number of applications are available for their system. What they don't mention is their flexible definition of "application". Many of these "application" are actually widgets (web front-ends) offering no additional content compared to that offered from the content provider's mobile web page.
Does the platform provider acknowledge that your application is what provides value to their product or do they make you jump through hoops to distribute and gain access to the APIs needed to perform the innovative tasks to differentiate your product in a highly competitive market? Remember, the platform provider works for the application developer, not the reverse.
Is your freedom to establish your own distribution model preserved? Some providers offer only one outlet through which software can be distributed. This has already been shown to retard the progression of innovation as it may be required to remove features competing with offerings from the outlet's parent company. If there is no restriction, you may distribute the software via the store(s) of your choosing and/or self distribute to release faster updates and improvements than your competition.
Do you have the same freedom over the device as you would any other computer? The more freedom you have to control the device with your application the more opportunity there is set your product above the rest.
Is the platform your supporting licensed to multiple hardware vendors? A greater number of hardware vendors that can utilize the platform for which your product is developed will deprioritize the need to cross-develop between platforms thus enabling you to focus finite R&D to innovation rather than redundant development.
The increased priority of handheld and LFF-PDA products are raising their status from supplementary devices to primary devices. The companies that update their offerings accordingly will become dominant while others will suffer. While a supplementary device does not need a powerful offline office suite for files too sensitive to be saved to the cloud, flexible easy to use file sharing, diverse system wide printing ability, external display connectivity for mobile presentations, etc., a primary device does need these. In addition, implementation will be straight forward as it has already been done. Many organizers and PDAs of the 90's had network connectivity, flexible printing, and full featured office suites that rival options on many devices currently. Adopting some of these "primary device" features will also help their adoption as corporate standards. Some of these include:
Flexible centralized management and deploy features: Developing a configuration within an emulator with full applications, settings, etc. that could be easily deployed as an image to the entire company.
Remote support: Powerful remote peer to peer access for easy helpdesk support
Standard docking interface utilizing technology such as UWB and induction charging. By creating a contactless docking interface a low manufacturing cost docking system could be licensed to any accessory provider such as Belkin and many others. This would strengthen the power of this platform against others that are not appreciating the user's expectation and desire that their handheld device be a primary device. In addition, this style of docking system would be compatible with a wide array of physical sizes and form factors.
printing system for which low cost printer divers can easily be developed by any printer vendor.
Netbook convergence: A large form factor device with comfortable keyboard to which the handheld would connect to provide the user with a more comfortable interface to their existing handheld device.
The handheld platforms offer incredible opportunity for cloud providers and software vendors, but one of the points I think this article gets across is that if you don't take advantage of that opportunity you will become a victim of progress.
-Matthew
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