March 16th, 2006
The Lord taketh and giveth away...even for Steve Jobs
Could the hardware, operating system and desktop model of computing be finished?
As usually happens in the accelerating and madcap world of technology, while there’s one giant publicly feted leap forward for mankind, something else occurs that is going to make the big deal almost irrelevant. Could Bill G. actually be far ahead in the innovation game?Such is the case today in the world of personal computing, and it looks like Apple may be most at risk.
First, the Big Deal. Here comes the announcement that the new dual core Macs have been hacked to run Windows XP . If true—and as of now it hasn’t been confirmed, but can anyone believe it won’t happen?—it is a day many of us have been awaiting for years. This will finally provide a head to head competition between the world’s two leading computer operating systems, a level playing field, and a chance for consumers to select whichever one they need based on what they need to do. Mac vs. Windows, the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, the Yankees vs. the Red Sox—what could be more American than a show down on the playing field of commerce?
At first glance, this is probably good for Apple, since it can sell machines into places where the ability to run Windows was a requirement. And it is good for Microsoft, since it means all those Macintosh users are potential buyers for XP. It has to be terrible news for Dell, and HP, and Lenovo, and Gateway and every other seller of single operating system machines—now the only reason to buy a gizmo that is hobbled with a single operating system, is lower-cost, so pricing is going to get brutal. Call it Steve’s revenge…brought to you by your neighborhood hackers.
But now for the irony.
March 13th, 2006
Don't drink the Kool Aid -- this is important
It has come to this. Blogoviating has reached new pinnacles of excess that remind me of the good old days of tech trade publications, press release journalism, and what is generally considered fatuous reporting.
If you want to read a blog entry that demonstrates much of what is currently wrong with the blogosphere, The whole thing reeks, and yet, there is a glimmer of hope in all of this. read this one about TrustedID, a new credit protection service that has raised a bunch of Silicon Valley VC money from investors whose myopia has led them to reinvent the wheel. Obviously, everybody associated with this company has drunk from the Kool Aid pitcher…and that includes the guy who wrote the piece, Michael Arrington.
This is a troubling development that points out the dangers of this new free-for-all medium. A fellow becomes an important blogger through a fast word processor and a chance position as the chronicler of every two-bit company that emerges, and now he has clout enough to attract ads and lots of attention. Unfortunately, success (as measured by links and references) in the blogosphere doesn’t mean that he has learned how to be a skeptical, or even particularly savvy commentator, and precious few commentators turn a spotlight on the content of what he is generating.
I’m talking about Michael Arrington whose TechCrunch has become one of the leading deal announcers, and buzzmakers of Web 2.0. The writer has parlayed his popularity hyping every company he is introduced to into gigs as an onstage interviewer and commentator on all things ‘Net. But there’s a big difference between regurgitating the company line
March 10th, 2006
Toothbrush Tech
It’s funny where you find ideas and insight. As technology has embedded itself in everything we do, lessons come at you from all sides. This is a story about low tech (tooth brushing) meeting high tech (electric tooth brushes) and the choices a company can make.
I recently went to my local Costco warehouse store to buy (among other things) replacement toothbrushes for our Sonicare electric toothbrush. In the process I learned more than I ever want to know about these things, and came to the conclusion that it was also a clear example of why some consumer electronics companies are doomed to end up on the scrap heap of history. In this case, the company heading to the refuse pile is Phillips, which bought Sonicare a few years back.
So there I am in one of the giant aisles looking at a display of Sonicare units and replacement brushes. There are boxes stacked up above my head of the new units, and another set of teetering tiers of replacement brushes. The packaging is fresh and colorful, sleek even, and the boxes are emblazoned with the logo for “Crest” too, which just happens to be my paste of choice. See, the newest brushes have some integrated system for dispensing toothpaste into the brushes as you work over your teeth. They’ve even given it a meta-marketing name full of inter-caps: IntelliClean System.
I should have known right then that I was about to be bamboozled. But it all sounded good to me, baby boomer and member of the TV generation that I am. I looked through the racks of replacement brushes, and saw that they were all for this “IntelliClean System.” So I grabbed a couple of boxes of the replacement brushes and headed deeper into the heart of darkness that is Costco.
We’re already on our second generation of the devices—the first ones lasted for many years, and we replaced them within the past year or so. The new devices are smaller, easier for smaller hands to manage, and seem to work pretty well—they also look almost exactly like the replacement brush that was peeking through the artfully die cut oval window in the new Sonicare packaging. The only drawback is that in my ham fisted tooth brushing I go through the brushes in short order. Since we bought the new brushes from Costco not so long ago, I assumed that these were going to be interoperable. As I learned later, we have the “Elite” model. But at the time I had no idea what the marketing name for our toothbrush system was. I figured that since the new ones looked like the brushes I used every day, they would be compatible.
Au contraire mon frere!
As soon as I got home, my wife (who is much better at these things) took one look at the box and said “Those won’t work with our handles.” I argued for a few minutes, before marching into the bathroom to see for myself. Sure enough, this new “IntelliClean System” was incompatible with the new handles we had purchased less than a year earlier. And of course, it was also incompatible with the original handles that we had bought a decade earlier, which still work but have been relegated to the back of the bathroom cabinet.
I’m sure that there are a bevy of spreadsheet jockeys somewhere at Phillips who can tell you why it makes more financial sense to supercede a recent model with an incompatible “Newer! Better! Improved!” one and force customers to upgrade. Obviously it makes more money for Phillips if they can get me to buy a new $100 handle every couple of years, as well as a string of replacement brushes in the interim. Just think of the cash flow opportunities! Worse, the quality of the original Sonicare product was such that we never had to replace it—it was a choice based on design, not disrepair. What kind of business opportunity is that? You can almost hear the bean counters demanding that “quality be compromised” in order to find more profit in this business model.
I’ll bet there ‘s no cell in that spreadsheet for customer satisfaction. On that front Phillips has failed, and if I ever have a choice between their products and someone else’s, I know which way I’ll go. Of course, the Dutch company isn’t alone in making this lead footed mistake. In the high tech world Apple was the most egregious at forcing its customers to buy new computers each time it upgraded. Remember the Apple II, the Apple III, the Lisa, and the Mac? None was compatible with any of the others—in fact I’ve long felt that the way the company abandoned America’s schools when it dropped the Apple II was criminal. At the same time Microsoft, for all its “lack of sensitivity”, and Intel with its “market dominance”, made sure that each new generation of its software and hardware was backwardly compatible with previous generations.
We all know who won that battle with the consumers. Now Apple has finally seen the light with its newer generations of operating systems and made provisions for compatibility. Maybe Phillips will get the lesson too, before it tries to squeeze the Sonicare tube too tightly and loses all its customers.
But I doubt it.
March 9th, 2006
Little Brother Cisco in China
Cisco’s Chinese strategy is so much more sophisticated than most people realize that the giant networking company—the “gorilla” of networking—is executing a stealth program under the very noses of Wall Street and the mainstream media (MSM) that will have long term implications for almost every company in the networking space. In Cisco’s case, elephants can dance, The future implications of wiring the entire country for surveillance are Orwellian. and the proof is in this week’s announcement of Cisco’s acquisition of SyPixx, an obscure small company that has built a way to get old cheap analog surveillance cameras images (as well as digital ones) up onto IP networks so they can be monitored centrally. The $51 million investment is small potatoes, and while Om seems a bit bewildered, and some analysts are positive, no one gets it.
Except for John Chambers. Given the amount of ink that Cisco gets over everything it does, it is surprising that the press ignores one crucial part of John Chambers’ background: Before joining Cisco he was the general manager of IBM’s operations in China. Chambers understands the needs and desires of China’s rulers better than most American executives. The ruling elite wants to build a Big Brother society, and Cisco is all too willing to help them do it. SyPixx is a crucial component. The reason is rooted in the single most important project in China for the next two years: Read the rest of this entry »
March 8th, 2006
Personal Robots in LegoLand
Could one product turn around the fortunes of a company that has been struggling?
If you’ve been following the personal robot space—perhaps an aficionado of the TV show RobotWars, or the proud owner of a Sony Sebo or dependent on Roomba—you’ve got to feel a thrill at the news that Lego is going to release a new programmable robot system later this year. In my opinion Lego’s Mindstorms NXT might just be the start of a whole new digital revolution. And it could be the answer to the troubles facing the company as well.
In my household, where an 8 year old boy resides, Lego building kits were long a major fixture at every birthday and holiday holiday gift giving. Until about a year ago. That was when he realized that although he was fascinated by the process of building the kits—following the directions, and creating the space age vehicles, planes, and rocket stations—he quickly lost interest after he had completed the models. He would fly the models around in his imaginary wars, but soon they were relegated to a shelf. It was the building that he loved, and since Lego has missed the idea of reuseability—well, maybe that was part of the design—there was nothing more he could create with each kit once the basic device was conquered.
Maybe the Mindstorms NXT will change all that and help resurrect the nobility of hands on skills.
Ever since the personal computer graduated from the hobbyist and soldering gun set with the arrival of the IBM PC in 1981, the promise of the revolution has been hobbled. What started out as a tinkerer’s dream, the latest in a proud tradition of American mechanics and builders like the hot rodders and car buffs from the fifties and sixties, turned into an abstract universe driven by programmers. Software was the secret sauce of the PC generation, and those who could sling code succeeded—the Internet is the latest software universe—while grease monkeys were relegated to second class citizens.
But building a robot like this requires a combination of hardware and software and they have to work together perfectly. I know my son will find this absolutely fascinating, and I like the fact that the one kit can be used to create many different projects. Although I don’t like the $250 price tag, I’m sure I’ll find a way to get one. And maybe, just maybe, if the folks at Lego can play it right they’ll also create a social network where all of the robot designers can share tips and secrets and challenge each other. MyRobot.com?
Take me to your leader!
March 7th, 2006
Intel, Google and marketing gurus
This week Intel has been in the news as it has spilled news of Microsoft’s Origami Project in a carefully orchestrated product and buzz build. Revealed at its semi-annual Developer Forum, the company has also tried to pump up its prospects a week after revealing a precipitous decline in revenues and a falling market share for the processors that it pioneered. Unfortunately, for those who dream of Intel’s resurgence, this won’t do it. The moral of this story? Stick to what it is that you do superbly. AMD’s success is only a small part of the troubles besetting Intel. The real problem is that Intel has forgotten what made it great.
At the same time a video has been getting a great deal of attention on the web that demonstrates, in almost frightening detail, the kind of thinking that has hobbled Intel in recent years and will continue to do so until all vestiges of it are rooted out and the company returns to its roots. The video is of a speech given by a self-anointed marketing guru named Seth Goodin to a crowd at Google. The same fate will befall the search engine giant if it listens too closely.
Once upon a time there was a band of insanely talented, driven young materials science engineers who had helped create the Integrated Circuit (IC), launch the Space Race by delivering miniaturized electronics to NASA, and wanted to get out from under the stuffy East Coast ethos of the Fairchild Semiconductor Company. Three of the key ones were Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove. All three were bleeding edge, balls to the wall, chip guys—the kinds of driven hardware geeks of their day who thought nothing of spending days without sleep baking and babying silicon wafers in special ovens until they mastered the alchemistry of semiconductor manufacture.
They started a company called Intel, to build memory chips. They also created in one tiny skunkworks, a microprocessor. No one much knew what to do with the microprocessor, and the project was about to be cancelled when IBM settled on it to power a new generation of personal computers. The rest was history.
But like all good fables, this one couldn’t last forever.
March 6th, 2006
Subsidizing the status quo Internet
Are we in a new episode of The Prisoner? Is Patrick McGoohan about to walk through my browser? Hasn’t the socialist managed economy model been discredited enough already with the rise of the free for all scrum of the Internet?
There’s an old saw that goes: “To a carpenter everything looks like a nail.” What is so wrong about paying extra to deliver content to customers faster, better, cheaper?It is equally true of politicians: No matter what the issue, their answer is always more legislation. And the Internet is the latest target for the hammerers. The absurdity is that Internet companies are holding the nail.
The latest evidence of this is Senator Ron Wyden’s ill-conceived bill to “guarantee” a level playing field for Internet commerce, blogged about by fellow ZDNetter Russell Shaw. This is a terrible idea that should be resisted by every right thinking netizen. It comes a couple of days after a roar of protest over AOL and Yahoo!’s plans to charge high volume email senders special fees to have their mail delivered. This is the kind of target for the “Net Neutrality” bill—or perhaps the “Internet Business Welfare Act”.
So perhaps what this is all about is paranoia. The idea that somehow a network operator with bundled services will play favorites. This is a legitimate concern, but it could be dealt with
March 6th, 2006
Sniveling about Steve Jobs
Cut the turtle-necked geek-icon some slack, dudes!
I’m astonished by the reaction to Steve’s presentation earlier this week of the new Intel based Mac Mini. Smart guys like Om just don’t get it. He has completely missed the point…and so have all the rest of those that are dissing the announcements. Fellow ZDNetter David Berlind has his own problems with Apple that color his judgement too. Hint: The iPod is now mainstream, so Steve has moved on.Constructive criticism is one thing; whining about how you’re “let down” by Apple because they didn’t make the product you imagined, or don’t like Apple’s DRM scheme are exercises in arrogance and egotism that demonstrate a tin-ear, not insight.
Look, lord knows I’m no Steverino apologist. He did look a little subdued, not his usual ebullient self as Dan Farber pointed out in his post on the event—watch the video for yourself. And OK, the iPod hi-fi system is a little…well, derivative might be the best phrase, although Doc Searls (feeling the pain of his Sonos purchase) is more dismissive. And the leather carrying case? Pleeeez…come to think of it maybe Steve was embarrassed by it and that partly explains his behavior.
But none of this matters. The critical part of the show was the Mac Mini, and Apple’s relaunch of Bonjour, the company’s weirdly simple Wi-Fi networking scheme. This combination shows off everything that makes Steve the consumer impresario of the tech world, and further distances himself from both his Evil Empire northern neighbor Bill Gates, and jabs another stake into the side of the Texan Big Hat clonemaker.
Let’s start with the simple fact that in 25 years Intel-based PCs still look like the IBM PC-XT I bought in the early 1980’s. Alright, Dell, HP and all the other suspects have turned them on their side, made them slightly smaller, and provided some space age plastic work.This is progress? So along comes Steve—in 2006—and delivers an innovative box with an Intel processor in it. Apple is already more than six months earlier
February 18th, 2006
MovieBeam Mousketeers need Steve now
A couple of weeks after Disney agreed to buy Steve Jobs’ Pixar, the Mousketeers announced a new product from a spun-off subsidiary called MovieBeam that is so "brain dead" as the turtle-necked one would say, that you’ve got to wonder what they’re smoking in Burbank. As far as I can see, In today’s marketplace, even bad ideas can get funded–maybe the bubble is coming back after all. Steve, John Lasseter and the hordes at Pixar can’t get down to the House of Mouse fast enough, because if this is the kind of high tech idea that the supposedly technogeek Robert Iger has greenlighted, Disney is really in trouble.
Project Moonbeam–er, MovieBeam–essentially broadcasts recently released movies over the air in an unused portion of the current television broadcast spectrum, downloading them at a snail’s pace to the hard drive in a set-top box that a poor dumb subscriber (dare I say sucker?) has to buy upfront. You pay $250 for the thing–and it is one ugly sucker with an unwieldy remote and no DVR or DVD burner, go figure!–then pay an activation fee to boot. Voila, you now have the privilege to buy individual films at prices that range from $1.99 on up at about the same time they are released to pay-per-view services or show up on DVD at your local video rental shop.
Now let’s deconstruct this. The MoonBeam service slowly downloads movies to the box on its own, and stores about 100 movies, even some in HD format if you select that option. When you turn it on you get to select from what the programming whizzes are offering–you can bet that Disney films like Lion King 1 1/2 or High School Musical are going to be prominently displayed–and then you pay for the movie. Now you get 24 hours to view it. Isn’t that great! Hopefully you won’t fall asleep one night,
Jeffrey S. Young is the co-author of iCon Steve Jobs. He currently tends a vineyard in Northern California.
SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
- Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
- Email Security and Archiving - Clearer in the Cloud Google The time is NOW for businesses and organizations of all sizes to implement ... Download Now
Recent Entries
- The eBay Chronicles: Dreams of an eBay Mashup
- America’s Future…isn’t in America
- Tyranny of the New
- More Microsoft Chinese Backscratching
- Capitalism Gone Amok
Blogs From Our Sponsors
Top Rated
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- The more you simplify, the more you save
-
When you transition from your existing Red Hat environment to SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, you can recognize dramatic cost savings, perhaps as much 50%
- Learn more >>
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online - Free Six-Month Trial for Eligible Organizations
-
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides fast online access, simple contact management and better sales performance for a low monthly cost - the best value on the market today.
- Learn more about the free, six-month trial offer>>
Archives
Favorite Links
ZDNet Blogs
- All About Microsoft
- The Apple Core
- Between the Lines
- BriefingsDirect
- Collaboration 2.0
- Dev Connection
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders
- Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
- Emerging Tech
- Enterprise Web 2.0
- Forrester Research
- Googling Google
- GreenTech Pastures
- Hardware 2.0
- Home Theater
- iGeneration
- Irregular Enterprise
- IT Project Failures
- Laptops & Desktops
- Lawgarithms
- Linux and Open Source
- Managing L'unix
- The Mobile Gadgeteer
- On Sustainability
- Rational Rants
- The Semantic Web
- Service Oriented
- Smartphones and Cell Phones
- Social Business
- Social CRM: The Conversation
- Software & Services Safari
- Software as Services
- Storage Bits
- Team Think
- Tech Broiler
- Technology and the Global Supply Chain
- Tom Foremski: IMHO
- The ToyBox
- Virtually Speaking
- The Web Life
- ZDNet Education
- ZDNet Government
- ZDNet Healthcare
- Zero Day
White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now
- Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
- Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize YourServers VMware Server virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level ... Download Now
SmartPlanet
- Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large. Visit SmartPlanet
- More from IBM
-
- Innovate your business' process model, play against the market, compete against others on our scoreboards and WIN! Try INNOV8 2.0: A BPM Simulator
- Enabling Real-World Business Transformation through IBM Service Management Read the EMA Analyst Report
