Commercial rain

Why doesn’t  The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club sell ad space on the rain covers that are pulled over the courts?

Great Technology.. what’s next?

In my job I constantly look at how technology can help the business compete.  Innovative technologies that help to automate a process or can replace 3 or 4 existing technologies at a fraction of the cost or technology that can help us jump to the next curve.  I don’t think this is unique, I’m sure every organisation has this role or culture. 

I remember early on in my career, I discovered PCs on cards from Cubix and Chatterbox.  These were basically a chassis that could be rackmounted around 12U and contained PCs on cards in each slot with a single screen and keyboard/mouse input.  The target market for these were for remote access, email MTAs, dedicated PCs that ran a single process.  They were a good idea at the time, but as technology evolved, the need for such a product ceased.  The concept and design however lives on in many data centers today in the form of blade servers.  That to me, was a good example of how seeing what’s next by examining the past.  There’s no secret in that.

At the current rate of change the window between the past and the future is certainly getting smaller.  Early in this century, I took at risk and introduced the Blackberry device into the company, I believed in it and put my job on the line trying to get this little gem of a device into the hands of the people I believed would benefit from it.  Those who doubted and rejected my claims were not my target market, but were my senior management at the time! 

The same happened when I proposed we adopted an E-Mail Archiving product from KVS.  “Email is not growing and we can delete the old stuff, so why archiving?” was a comment from senior managment at the time. 

Two good examples of how I recognised the need for a technology in the business, before the need turned to a want.  Needless to say both these products became mission critical for us and are now an integral part of the infrastructure. 

Sometimes that can swing the other way, we looked at RFID about two years ago, and ended up scratching our heads wondering where and how to use this within the organisation.  Certainly RFID is perfect in some sectors such as retail, but not for us… right now.  I’m sure RFID will have a place in the future, but right now, it’s a struggle to embrace it within the Enterprise.

Moving on and outside the enterprise, I was facinated to see how Ninetendo jumped to the next curve.  This is a move that an existing incumbant has never achieved.  Sony and Ninetendo competed in the gaming sector for years.  Sony was dominant and against all the odds, Microsoft entered the market.  Ninetendo was squeezed out … or at least that what I thought, and all of a sudden they wiiturned bigger and better with a games console that was distruptive. 

So what’s next?  That’s a questions that has many varied answers.  What’s next for:

- Mobile Phones

- Television

- Automotive industry

- Financial industry

- Shoes and Footwear

Finally a light hearted look at how we sometimes invent a use for a technoogy, Microsoft’s Surface…roll VT!

It’$ a Gamble

I’m off to Vegas tomorrow.  First time and I’m not too au fait with most of the ‘events’, but, I am more than willing to learn.  I’ll keep posting, especially if the chips are down.

Go Global not regional.

Whilst many organisations have accepted globalisation and embraced it to create many more opportunities, it seems Apple are trying to do things differently.

Region encoding DVDs piss me off.  There is very little justification for it.  It’s another obstacle that is overcome with simply technology hacks.

To my point…Apple have announced they are launching the iPhone in the US ONLY on AT&T and it will not be able to be unlocked or switched to other providers.  So Europeans and Asians wanting to be one of the first to own one will either have to wait until local providers take it on OR put up with a over priced roaming device (unlikely).

Why?  Why are you doing this Apple?  I’m sure there is a business strategy that will provide Apple with the target market and the financial rewards, BUT it can work to their advantage if they launched worldwide at the same time, surely. 

I realise that some of the delay is caused by the telco providers, especially due to the fact that the device is a Wi-fi device capable of destroying their business model with VoIP, but that’s a threat they need to overcome and turn into an opportunity.

Very soon, I’m sure, there will be a method of unlocking a US iPhone very soon.  So why not avoid this and go global at day one?