Monthly Archives: June 2010

Google dumps Windows; Is Microsoft’s OS headed down a troubled path?

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It comes as no surprise that Google would want its employees to use its products, including the forthcoming Chrome OS. But months before the operating system is released publicly, the company has reportedly started pulling the plug on internal use of Windows computers. going so far as to require special permission to use Microsoft’s OS.

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A Financial Times report late Monday cited “several Google employees,” who say the shift was accelerated by security concerns following the hacking attack that prompted Google to shut down its China site earlier this year. The report says that new hires are given the option of a Mac or Linux-based PC as their company-issued computer. It also quotes some employees who say that uproar at Google over the phase-out of Windows has been far less than it might have been if the company had pulled the plug on Apple products.

I realize that it’s only one company – a soon-to-be-competitor, no less – but I can’t help but wonder if this move by Google is a sign of worse things to come for Microsoft, as it relates to the future of the Windows operating system. I only raise the point because this FT report reminded me of a blog post by Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps last week in which she explores Microsoft’s position in the tablet game and the company’s need for an answer to the iPad – from an OS point-of-view.

In it, she talks about the concept of “curated computing,” a style of personal computing where choice is limited but relevance is abundant. That, of course, is the iPad model, which she refers to as jukebox style computing. But, there’s no reason Microsoft can’t – and shouldn’t – also come up with a curated computing device to go head-to-head with the iPad, especially if it can tether with the Xbox to create a digital living room that the company has envisioned for years.

Back in April, Microsoft pulled the plug on Courier, a folding tablet/booklet device that was reportedly in “late prototype” last fall. That’s unfortunate, Rotman Epps writes, because the company needs to be in this ball game – for the sake of the OS. She writes:

At stake for Microsoft is no less than the future of the OS: For Microsoft to remain relevant to consumers, it needs to adapt its operating system to new form factors beyond the traditional PC. Forrester estimates that tablets will outsell netbooks in the US starting in 2013, and tablets will constitute 20% of all PC sales in the US in 2015. Microsoft needs its operating system on those tablets. Now it needs to convince its partners — and consumers — that they need Microsoft, too.

Certainly, I don’t think a decision by Google to pull the plug on internal use of Windows machines spells the end for the OS. After all, Windows is a security risk because it’s so deeply entrenched into the world of personal and business computing. Tech bad guys tend to target the biggest audience of users – and that’s Windows.

But the growing popularity of the Mac, as well as computers that are Linux-based, and now the upcoming launch of Chrome, does put some increased pressure on Microsoft. Investors are already feeling shaky about the company’s missteps on the mobile front and now the OS is coming under attack, as well.

Update: Microsoft’s corporate communications chief Frank X. Shaw has some fun with the FT story on his personal Twitter account. He notes that Google is going Google—nothing more nothing less. Among some of the more entertaining tweets:

  • news flash: Google boards up all windows in its global HQ, citing security concerns. Must credit FT.
  • News flash: Google bans ford cars using Sync from its parking lot, citing security issues. Must credit FT.
  • News flash: Google bans Bing from its computers. Must credit FT. Picture on Bing home page is distracting to G engineers.

www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-dumps-windows-is-microsofts-os-headed-down-a-troubled-path/35212?tag=nl.e019

The Golden Age Of IT Has Begun: 6 Reasons Why

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The simultaneous transcendence of predictive analytics, real-time computing, and mobile power is creating tremendous new opportunities for CIOs.
Yeah, I know, the CFO is on you like a coat of cheap paint, and some breathless new survey says cloud computing and mobile devices will make IT departments obsolete by the end of the week, and your mother-in-law keeps reminding your spouse that she always knew you’d never amount to anything.

But.

I think all the gloom and doom is a lot of garbage. Is the IT profession under pressure? Absolutely—but when, really, has that not been the case? Capabilities like IT that sit at strategic junctures in operations, customer engagement, product development, supply chain, and corporate agility need to be held to the highest possible expectations. Otherwise, what’s the point? If we can’t live up to that sort of responsibility and accountability, then every CEO should make the CFO’s day by giving that CFO the order to call a good outsourcer and flush the whole IT organization down the tubes, with all its detached mumbo-jumbo priorities and secret languages and navel fixations.

But CIOs who were able to survive 2009 are not likely to be such creampuffs—quite the opposite—and I think we’re seeing plenty of signs that 2010 holds enormous potential for being a golden time for CIOs because six key developments are falling into place simultaneously:

1) Finally—finally!—IT vendors of various stripes are delivering some fabulous new capabilities to let CIOs clean up the messes they’ve accumulated over the past 10-15 years while also getting ready to pounce on new opportunities offered by dazzling new capabilities in analytics, real-time operations and decision-making, mobility, and cloud computing. Until recently, I often wondered if some IT vendors lived in parallel universes wherein they would say that they were focusing on customer needs but in fact they were scrapping to win yesterday’s market-share battles. I think the lean and vicious experiences of 2009 have pushed those silly attitudes permanently into the past, and IT vendors today have come to realize that the CIOs who used to buy from them out of habit have turned into demanding and highly discriminating shoppers.

2) The age of CIO as High Priest is over and done, and good riddance. For those who practiced that shell game, good riddance—because, having been discovered to be a shameless charlatan, you are surely now looking for other types of work. And for real CIOs, the benefit is that you are now going to be judged like every other C-level executive: by your contributions to customer value, business value, corporate earnings, corporate growth, new-product development, and customer engagement. The Alice In Wonderland days are over—and that means CIOs are now in the mainstream without asterisks, without interpreters, and without the phony and counterproductive distinctions that in the past made them last among C-suite equals.

www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225000029&cid=nl_IW_week_2010-05-31_h

The Backdoor to Social Media

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Despite the draw of accessing millions of regular users, many businesses are not yet ready to enter social media. There’s a host of reasons. They include: wrestling with compliance and regulatory issues; trying to establish clear corporate policies and guidelines; devising a strategy, or determining benchmark metrics and ROI (define). When it comes to social media, companies seem to be stuck in paralysis by analysis. Yet, to all of these concerns, there is a commonly-overlooked alternative: advertising!

Speak the Advertiser’s Language

When pitching clients on social media advertising, the online media planner should ease them into the idea by using terminology the advertiser already understands: impressions, page views, click-throughs, actions, and targeted (or niche) marketing. Social media advertising can increase reach, frequency, and share-of-voice and also give an advertiser a new metric with which to test: engagement. More on tracking metrics later.

Inject Social Sites Into Media Plans

Social media might not seem like the kind of thing an online media planner ought to be focusing on, but because of its popularity, media planners really do need to pay attention. Initially, many social media sites offered no advertising, or at most, only “irrelevant, annoying, and boring” banner ads. Now, however, social media advertising opportunities vary greatly and for the company yet unwilling or unable to participate in social media, advertising feels more safe and is something to which they can more easily relate.

Wondering what’s out there and where to start? This is just a short list of both broad and niche social sites that also offer traditional display or alternative online advertising opportunities:

Social Ad Networks and Solutions

If you don’t want to limit your ad visibility to a single social media site or group, consider building a social ad network into your plan. You’d probably be surprised by the variety of options out there such as:

  • Blog advertising: Use networks like BlogAds, BlogHer, and Technorati Media to reach readers in the blogosphere.
  • Conversation targeting: Get in front of actively engaged users by advertising where people are specifically seeking answers (sites like Yahoo Answers, eHow, and ChaCha) or targeting keywords occurring in conversations through technologies like BuzzLogic.
  • SocialMedia.com: An ad network that can deliver your paid message through an assortment of social-specific opportunities like social overlays, social interaction ads, friend-to-friend ads, Twitter-enabled ads, video ads, and community polls.

Inclusions in User-Driven Local Directories

Though not ordinarily considered a media planning activity, ensuring that your advertisers with geo-specific locations somehow get submitted to and included in popular user-driven local directories like Yelp, Angie’s List,Urbanspoon, and Gowalla can help give them some very valuable social visibility.

Tracking and Reporting Brand Mentions in the Socialsphere

Last week, my co-columnist Harry Gold wrote a timely column detailing “Online Media Tracking Methodology for Social Media.” Providing metrics data like these combined with response data from test advertising on social sites might provide just the right amount of fuel to get advertisers to finally take the leap into fully-embracing social.

In addition to the tracking means Harry wrote about, a few other solutions, ranging from very robust to less powerful, exist to help you compile this data:

When it comes to social, it’s a bit like the early days of the Internet. We can’t expect marketers to dive right in. If they’re really afraid of the water, get them to try a little advertising first to get their feet wet.

www.clickz.com/3640476