Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
What I love about Silicon Valley: larger than life CEOs throwing down over how the world will change. Up next: cloud fights! http://ping.fm/3eaU5
Friday, October 07, 2011
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Monday, October 03, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
IBM commits $3.6 billion to drive chips to 14nm, staying at the top of the industry. http://ping.fm/tbQTC
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Lower temperatures and the end of Setsuden have made Tokyo more livable this week. Good New York times article too. http://ping.fm/3yZ53
Goes nicely with an in-depth article on what's driving Hactivism from the Financial Times (no paywall) http://ping.fm/sfU0O
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
You read the powerpoint. Now watch the movie. My presentation from PVSEC, straight to video! http://ping.fm/vBtk6
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
My favorite financial commentator Barry Ritholtz on Wall Street analysts - they're useless! http://ping.fm/uXdnz
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Monday, September 05, 2011
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Friday, September 02, 2011
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
My good friend Krish Dharma has written a great article on cloud strategy in product development. Check it out online: http://ping.fm/Ny8S2 -technology-082611/
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Will Google's acquisition of Moto help Android or scare off Samsung and other partners? http://ping.fm/3mUij
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Key insight into health & social networks may not be true: maybe you can't catch obesity. http://ping.fm/EzvY2
Monday, August 08, 2011
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Kickstarter, profiled in depth. More evidence of why the New York Times smokes the Journal these days when it comes to biz news. http://ping.fm/idxfl
I love Pret-A-Manger, one my favorite fast food places. New York Times today has a great article on their business model http://ping.fm/VwIXa
Friday, August 05, 2011
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
VC data says google now down to 50% share of all real searches. http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/08/roger-mcnamee-everything-is-changing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29
A clear explanation of absurdity: Zediva is illegal because the cable is too long! http://ping.fm/qGWHW
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Studios win first round against Zediva, but it's not yet game over. Rulings + appeals could take up to 2 years. http://ping.fm/Jexgx
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Why is the economy weak? Because recoveries from financial crises take longer than regular recessions. http://ping.fm/ASdYm
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Save the Date: IBM is going solar! We'll be at PVSEC (Photovoltaic Solar World) in September! http://ping.fm/HqEYA
We're just at the front end of massive new wave of globalization from eCommerce. http://ping.fm/LKzPq
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Overpaying for talent doesn't payoff. http://ping.fm/1RRXm’s-200m-secret-shows-the-rot-goes-way-way-back/
Monday, July 04, 2011
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Speaking this afternoon on the Connected Home at the Connections Conference in Santa Clara. http://ping.fm/KArxP
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Four Ways Analytics Will Transform Enterprises
The surge of investment in business analytics and optimization (BAO) has gone far beyond a CIO fad. But while the adoption of BAO has been widespread, we're still in the early stages of seeing how widespread use of BAO will change enterprises.
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| Really Big Data...An IBM System 360 (Photo from Cote, Flickr, cc) |
Today, BAO is something extra. A shiny new toy. A source of new insight into existing business processes. But the revolution that is coming from BAO is far from finished. I believe there are four ways that BAO will reshape the enterprise before this transformation is over:
1. BAO won't just inform business process, it will change nearly every business process.
- Changes will not be radical, but they will impact every single process in the enterprise
- Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) is already a well established concept in my business process environments. Widespread use of BAO will make it much easier to do the "Plan" and "Check" components. That could contribute to changes in business processes in two ways:
- Speed it up. More and tighter loops around PDCA, expectation for significantly faster cycle times
- More focus on outliers. It will be much easier to see where the process isn't working, and this could lead to greater focus on exception management.
2. BAO will significantly improve the resilience of enterprises to shocks.
- One of the most interesting things about BAO is it's flexibility. When you're missing key elements of information, BAO systems such as SPSS that can do predictive analytics are able to infer and predict some data based on history and assumptions. This improves your ability to obtain a good outcome with less information.
3. BAO will reshape the IT systems landscape, making it lighter and more agile.
- BAO systems are more flexible and lighter weight than traditional ERP bolt-ons such as supply chain planning systems. We'll see a growth of applications on the analytics platform and those will be faster and more flexible than traditional bolt-ons.
- The first systems to be affected will be those that already have some predictive or analytical role such as supply chain systems which already do forecasting.
- Beyond that, nearly every add-on will be reshaped by analytics. The very ability to be predictive means that we can also be prescriptive. If you have 2-3 choices, the system might advise of likely outcomes. You can imagine the application of this data in hiring decisions, in pricing decisions, in product launch timing.
4. Enterprises will become better and more aggressive risk-takers and innovators.
- BAO could make companies more conservative - driving users to take the system recommended choice, but I don't believe it will.
- BAO will, I believe, drive more innovation and risk taking in two ways:
- One way is through more A/B experimentation. One of the barriers to experimentation is the inability to correctly and easily measure the impact on control groups. Smart eCommerce companies already set up their online stores and analytics systems to conduct frequent idea testing. That concept could be much more widespread as it becomes easier to measure impacts.
- A second possibility is that we use analytics and predictive optimization to hedge our bets. If we're planning a huge new product introduction, we can use analytics to identify bottlenecks in the supply and make selective investments in capacity where in the past we might have made blanket investments - so we can make big bets less expensive and consequently make more of them.
The transformation of the enterprise from the rise of the Internet itself isn't even finished yet and now to that we're adding a new layer of transformation - the rise of analytics. Whatever happens, the results will be interesting.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
I'm hosting a webcast on analytics on June 23. IBM, Qualcomm + Frost & Sullivan. Info & register: http://bit.ly/iAAWg5
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Medical device software - one of our biggest challenges to get it perfect. Webcast on this topic here: http://ping.fm/tt3da
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Analysis of stolen Sony passwords show: hardly worth the trouble to steal, they're so easy to guess! http://ping.fm/1U0p1
Monday, June 06, 2011
Friday, June 03, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
New IBM study out now: Connected Devices are tough to do, but sooo valuable when done right. http://ping.fm/Q9NIt
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Was I Wrong About The Blackberry?
Six months ago, it looked for all the world like RIM, the makers of the Blackberry phone and messaging system, were DOA. Their phones were dull, their operating system tired, and their plans for a tablet were very very late to market.
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| The Blackberry Playbook - Image from ETC@USC |
Something happened two weeks ago that changed my mind. I got a chance to play with RIM's new Playbook tablet. And it was great. The Playbook is the single best tablet on the market today from an operating system perspective. The iPad2 still beats it for hardware and app selection, but the Playbook stands head and shoulders above competing offerings on the Android platform.
In addition to very good hardware, the Playbook runs a new operating system called QNX that RIM purchased last year. It handles mult-tasking was ease and RIM has also invested heavily in the user interface experience. The result: a slicker, smoother multi-tasking interface than anything else on the market.
RIM has more than 3,000 applications ready for the Playbook, about 30 times more than Android tablets. And the QNX O/S is headed for their phones too, probably sometime next year. Early reports suggest that the Playbook is selling well to the core Blackberry fan-base, better than any Android tablet (though that's a low bar).
The result: though painfully slow in their transformation, RIM shows signs of getting it done soon enough to avoid irrelevance. Additionally, the success of the Playbook may become critical, in the end, to their survival. It's increasingly clear that smartphones are not islands. The are just the smallest item in the ecosystem. Smartphone ecosystems like Apple and Android have tablets and that's a critical strength.
By contrast, Windows Phone 7 has no tablet planned, which is a shame, unless Windows 8 turns out to be much slimmer and tablet friendly. HP has WebOS in both phone and tablet form, but HP's tablet is even later to market than RIM and it doesn't have a loyal Blackberry user base on which to build.
Though I'm a diehard iPad user myself, with over 100 applications on my iPad2, I must admit to looking at the Playbook with some interest. A 10" version and some good note-taking software will seal the deal for me.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
My good friend Saul Berman has a great new white paper out on the transition from products to services. http://ping.fm/Rr80Z
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Important evidence of another wave of industry productivity growth - this time from analytics. http://ping.fm/SiRBO
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Apple, Samsung Clash Could Force More Innovation At Samsung
Apple and Samsung are now engaged in a high stakes legal battle over Apple's charge that Samsung copied it's design approach in phones and tablets. Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.
But this has to fall into the category of "Be Careful What You Wish For". Samsung has traditionally been a fast follower in business - moving into spaces with standardized products at lower prices once the market has been proven - push down cost and driving up quality and volume. This has worked well for the company and, if anything, the success of this strategy has probably slowed down investments in more innovative, original approaches.
That could all change now. Apple is telling Samsung, in a way, that it must choose between the fast-follower business in consumer devices and the roughly $6 billion in annual component sales to Apple. If Samsung chooses to back off on the fast follower business model, that might not mean a smaller Samsung. It might mean a much more innovative one willing to take bigger risks.
Apple might like that Samsung even less.
But this has to fall into the category of "Be Careful What You Wish For". Samsung has traditionally been a fast follower in business - moving into spaces with standardized products at lower prices once the market has been proven - push down cost and driving up quality and volume. This has worked well for the company and, if anything, the success of this strategy has probably slowed down investments in more innovative, original approaches.
That could all change now. Apple is telling Samsung, in a way, that it must choose between the fast-follower business in consumer devices and the roughly $6 billion in annual component sales to Apple. If Samsung chooses to back off on the fast follower business model, that might not mean a smaller Samsung. It might mean a much more innovative one willing to take bigger risks.
Apple might like that Samsung even less.
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| Samsung at CES. Photo from Joanna |
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wow! Philips ditches the TV business. New CEO wastes no time in kicking off a major transformation. http://ping.fm/T5aGN
Wow! Philips ditches the TV business. New CEO wastes no time in kicking off a major transformation. http://ping.fm/T5aGN
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Forget Tepco, Japanese Start-ups Power On
There's a good article over at TechCrunch on their Japan start-up day. Link. There's a number of good ideas there.
Japan's start-ups face big challenges in getting going and the number of start-ups featured in the TechCrunch event was tiny compared to the same number that would show up in Silicon Valley. Too many graduates in Japan still aspire to join the ranks of big companies.
Even more important, few Japanese companies see start-ups as a source of innovation they can acquire. Today, while IPOs remain an important "exit" point for companies, the most common one is acquisition by a larger technology company. The buyer gets a proven product and team at the stroke of a pen and the start-up gets a faster exit and great payday.
Japan's start-ups face big challenges in getting going and the number of start-ups featured in the TechCrunch event was tiny compared to the same number that would show up in Silicon Valley. Too many graduates in Japan still aspire to join the ranks of big companies.
Even more important, few Japanese companies see start-ups as a source of innovation they can acquire. Today, while IPOs remain an important "exit" point for companies, the most common one is acquisition by a larger technology company. The buyer gets a proven product and team at the stroke of a pen and the start-up gets a faster exit and great payday.
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| Tokyo Tower, in brighter days. Photo from Around The Rings |
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Nothing Special In The Air: Lufthansa's A380
Airlines have often used big new airplanes as opportunities to roll out updated products. Despite the hype, however, the A380 looks to be different. Unveiled in an era when first class is all but extinct, the super jumbo seems to have little to recommend it other than it's new.
Today will be my second flight on the A380 and I can already tell this is the last time I'll bother to remember that. While some planes seem to be universally wonderful (The 767, 747), the A380 seems to be quite boring.
Most boring of all? Lufthansa's implementation of the A380. The airline has done really nothing new in coach or business class to make the plane differentiated or special. In coach, the squeeze remains as tight as ever. And in Business Class, Lufthansa is determined not to break down and give people an actual flat bed.
The result: its just a big plane. One that will bring a big line at the beginning and the end of the flight, but nothing special in the middle. All things being equal, a flight on a United 767 would probably be much better.
Today will be my second flight on the A380 and I can already tell this is the last time I'll bother to remember that. While some planes seem to be universally wonderful (The 767, 747), the A380 seems to be quite boring.
Most boring of all? Lufthansa's implementation of the A380. The airline has done really nothing new in coach or business class to make the plane differentiated or special. In coach, the squeeze remains as tight as ever. And in Business Class, Lufthansa is determined not to break down and give people an actual flat bed.
The result: its just a big plane. One that will bring a big line at the beginning and the end of the flight, but nothing special in the middle. All things being equal, a flight on a United 767 would probably be much better.
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| Photo from Globetrotter |
The new terminal at SFO puts everyone else to shame. If only other airports were like this. http://ping.fm/9ubzl
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Round The World: Death By Conference Call
The hardest thing about doing conference calls on the road is that impact of jet-lag on your ability to stay awake. Presenting is easy. Listening, concentrating, is hard.
In fact, right now, I'm supposed to be listening to someone tell me about a new software product. But my mind is wandering. It's not that I don't approve on wondering - it's useful and probably healthy from time-to-time, but with jetlag and exhaustion, that wondering starts to extend just a bit too far.
In fact, right now, I'm supposed to be listening to someone tell me about a new software product. But my mind is wandering. It's not that I don't approve on wondering - it's useful and probably healthy from time-to-time, but with jetlag and exhaustion, that wondering starts to extend just a bit too far.
Netflix wins Mad Men exclusive. 2011 really could be the year the old order collapses. http://ping.fm/qf3yH
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
This is a rather unexpected illustration of what we mean when we say "lean innovation" http://ping.fm/nTxAD
Monday, April 04, 2011
Finally GPS gets some real competition - but can Russia keep it's network operating reliably? http://ping.fm/J3iPq
Around The World in 21 Days. Day 1.
Sunday. The first day of my round-the-world trip to meet clients and team members. Day 1: United 930 to London departing at 7pm and then connecting onto Lufthansa for Munich and then, finally, Nice.
I've been sitting in the lounge for 3 hours now, having come to the airport early to get work done in a sane, quiet atmosphere. With two kids at home, yes, really, going to the airport can be peaceful. After writing a ton of email, I decide I better get up and walk around a bit before sitting on my rear for 10 hours.
Just as I'm leaving, I get a phone call from United. They say I'm scheduled to fly to Frankfurt tonight, but I have not checked in. Am I planning on coming? No, I say. I'm going to London. Now I'm worried, is my reservation messed up? Did I forget something really important - like what flight I am on? No, they say, just some confusion in the record. They will clean it up.
I put it out of my mind and go for a walk. My goal, cover the international terminal front to back before getting on the plane. I put on some music and walk out. 40 minutes and three terminals later, I'm back wondering towards my gate.
I go down and inquire about the all-important upgrade - they have just started boarding. Somehow, I'm auto-pilot because I don't even notice that I'm not at the right gate. London in 97, but I'm here, inexplicably, at gate 92, which is the flight to Frankfurt.
Fortunately, they've been looking for me. The flight to London is overbooked and they wanted to offer me an upgrade on the flight to Frankfurt, complete with earlier connection and arrival in Nice 2 hours sooner, so I'm on. The gate agent prints me new boarding passes and asks me if I'd like a revised copy of my itinerary. Sure, I say, so she prints it out. She takes one look at it and hands it to me. "You're insane," she says.
On the plane: Half a glass of champagne, some warm nuts, and I'm down to sleep for 7 hours.
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| At SFO |
I've been sitting in the lounge for 3 hours now, having come to the airport early to get work done in a sane, quiet atmosphere. With two kids at home, yes, really, going to the airport can be peaceful. After writing a ton of email, I decide I better get up and walk around a bit before sitting on my rear for 10 hours.
Just as I'm leaving, I get a phone call from United. They say I'm scheduled to fly to Frankfurt tonight, but I have not checked in. Am I planning on coming? No, I say. I'm going to London. Now I'm worried, is my reservation messed up? Did I forget something really important - like what flight I am on? No, they say, just some confusion in the record. They will clean it up.
I put it out of my mind and go for a walk. My goal, cover the international terminal front to back before getting on the plane. I put on some music and walk out. 40 minutes and three terminals later, I'm back wondering towards my gate.
I go down and inquire about the all-important upgrade - they have just started boarding. Somehow, I'm auto-pilot because I don't even notice that I'm not at the right gate. London in 97, but I'm here, inexplicably, at gate 92, which is the flight to Frankfurt.
Fortunately, they've been looking for me. The flight to London is overbooked and they wanted to offer me an upgrade on the flight to Frankfurt, complete with earlier connection and arrival in Nice 2 hours sooner, so I'm on. The gate agent prints me new boarding passes and asks me if I'd like a revised copy of my itinerary. Sure, I say, so she prints it out. She takes one look at it and hands it to me. "You're insane," she says.
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| Nice views over the Alps |
On the plane: Half a glass of champagne, some warm nuts, and I'm down to sleep for 7 hours.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Friday, April 01, 2011
Airline Alliances, Mergers Generate Bizarre Results
Check this out. I buy a plane ticket on United Airlines. One segment is operated by United. The next segment is operated by Continental, but sold as a United Airlines code-share with a United flight number. And the third segment is operated by Lufthansa, but again, sold as a United segment with a United flight number.
But aren't both Lufthansa and Continental also members of the Star Alliance? Yes they are. Can't you book upgrade awards through the Star Alliance? Yes you can. So why can't I upgrade? Because I bought the United ticket.
Had I purchased a ticket from Continental, I could have used United miles to upgrade on the exact same flight. But, having purchased it with a United code share flight number, I cannot upgrade.
Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up.
- My first flight is upgradeable.
Upgradeable.
- My second flight is not. Say what? Doesn't United own Continental? They do indeed. Doesn't matter. I cannot upgrade my ticket to business class with any number of miles, points, or VIP certificates.
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| Not upgradeable. |
- The third flight is operated by Lufthansa.
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| Not upgradable. |
But aren't both Lufthansa and Continental also members of the Star Alliance? Yes they are. Can't you book upgrade awards through the Star Alliance? Yes you can. So why can't I upgrade? Because I bought the United ticket.
Had I purchased a ticket from Continental, I could have used United miles to upgrade on the exact same flight. But, having purchased it with a United code share flight number, I cannot upgrade.
Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up.
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