Peer-to-Peer Enterprise Computing, Anyone?

My colleague Michael Hickins and I have disagreed at times over whether companies like Google or Apple. My skepticism has never been one of simply product function or cost, but rather an issue of what it takes to provide what an enterprise IT customer looks for. Bernard Lunn at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting discussion of this in the context of enterprise customers often demanding on-premise deployment, rather than SaaS delivery. And in his reporting is a nugget that suggests an entirely new business model that I'm calling peer-to-peer enterprise computing.

• Jun 30, 2009

Will Nokia Put Moblin In The Middle?

Nokia is rumored to be planning to introduce a netbook in 2010 running on Google's Android operating system. I wonder how that would sit with Intel, with whom Nokia just got in bed. Do they have an open marriage? Phil Goldstein fingers Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amir as the source of t...

• Jul 1, 2009

Supreme Court Passes on Two Cases with Major Tech Implications

The U.S. Supreme Court made some important tech news today by refusing to hear two cases: one about a next generation digital video recorder, and another important patent case.

• Jun 29, 2009

Will The Real Smooth Operator Please Step Forward?

Wireless network operators have an unprecedented opportunity to jump off their churn and burn treadmill and create valuable and lasting relationships with end users, handset makers and application vendors and, if they really play their cards right, could even wean themselves off the handset subsidy ...

• Jul 1, 2009

Google Lost In Real-Time Space

Here is a parable about Google that its executives seem to have forgotten: There once was a Web site so good that although all it ever did was send people away, they kept coming back, over and over and over again. Only to be sent away again. In fact, the only reason people keep coming back to this ...

• Jun 29, 2009

Tech Law: Dell In Contempt, DOJ Delays Oracle-Sun Deal, More

Dell found in contempt; IBM fails to stop Dell hire of M&A exec; Apple-Psystar case to proceed and Apple sued by consumers again; Germany court readies to fine Rapidshare; the FCC has new chairman, commissioner; Nortel creditors want to halt unit sale to Nokia Siemens Networks; and the DOJ wants more time to vet Oracle-Sun deal.

• Jun 29, 2009

Why Is the Press So Freakin' Credulous and Dumb?

Via the news letter of publishing consulting Bob Sacks, I learned of a student hoax that won a top prize from the magazine Paris Match. A pair from the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts convinced a group of "experts" that a faked spread on "students prostituting themselves or looking for food in ...

• Jun 29, 2009

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft -- All Miss the Big Picture

You hear a lot of comparison between companies. Google will beat Microsoft, or Microsoft will devastate Google. Twitter will become the New Google, or the New Facebook, or the New Media. Yahoo will become the New Yahoo. You get the idea. But there are two things that become obvious when you think a moment. One is that all these companies are juggling for a future business landscape dominated by communications. The other is that they're all trying to fit a complex issue into their own undersized boxes.

• Jun 29, 2009

Does Another Nail in Apple Margins Mean the Eventual End of Macs?

According to iSuppli, the new Mac Mini is a heck of a lot more expensive to make than is usual for Apple. A $599 machine yields just over $200 in margin. For many companies, that would be slick. For Apple, with its legacy of high margin business, this is the financial equivalent of an earthquake. And it's yet the latest piece of evidence suggesting that on the computer front, and probably elsewhere as well, the days of enviable levels of profitability, and the ability to sell expensive hardware, are likely coming to an eventual end.

• Jun 29, 2009

Pre? iPhone? Android? Developers Place Bets, Take Chances

It's clear that the future of Palm rests on the Pre, as my colleague Michael Hickins noted. Much of the potential success of the Pre -- or any handset, as has been clear from Apple's wild success -- rides on the developers and companies that decide to create applications for the platform. And they are weighing a lot of factors to figure out where to focus their technical and marketing resources and what platforms to support.

• Jun 26, 2009

Smartphones Get Killer App

A killer application has finally emerged that should allow smartphones to overtake conventional PCs and laptops as the computing device of choice: it's called augmented reality, and as absurd as that sounds, that's exactly what it is. Mobile applications consultant Tomi Ahonen wrote on his mobi...

• Jun 26, 2009

Separating SAP From Chaff

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Dennis Howlett's analysis"][/caption] My recent post accusing Oracle of lying about its chief rival was close enough to the mark to get under Oracle's skin. Still, it had some holes I couldn't fill, not least of which because of different...

• Jun 26, 2009

Palm Takes A Seat At Smartphone Table

Palm CEO Jonathan Rubinstein doesn't think he has to beat the brains out of former employer Apple, or any other smartphone vendor, in order for Palm to succeed. It's a remarkably calm assessment from the leader of a company whose future depends largely on the success of a single product launch, and ...

• Jun 26, 2009

Apple, Darwinism, and Evolutionary Marketing

In the book Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller argues that consumers buy goods because of subconscious, deeply-seated motivation to find mates and procreate. And a prime example of a company that has ridden Darwin all the way to the bank is Apple.

• Jun 26, 2009

Sirius XM Price Hike Using Royalties As Income Boost Excuse?

Sirius XM has been notifying subscribers of a price hike that the company ascribes to increased music royalties that the service is incurring. But while the company is getting charged more, the subscription increases far outstrip the higher royalties, seeming to put the company in conflict with a promise it made the FCC at the time of the merger between former competitors Sirius and XM.

• Jun 25, 2009

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