Software strategies and more…

1. Apps! (really, hands down lots of these! Although I have not set up the Android player on the PB yet just the breadth and variety of the Apps shows how developers have and continue to innovate on this platform)
2. Stand alone email. The iPad allowed me to sync my three most often used accounts and manage my email effectively. While this was markedly improved in the PB 2.0 release midway thru my trip, I really liked the way Apple manages the email and content.
3. Easy access to email folders (in general it has a better mail app (although PB got a lot better with v2)
4. Style (it is a sexy piece of hardware and software)
5. Location of power plug – This might seem nit picky, but using a flip cover for the PB try to watch a movie while charging and having ear phones plugged in at the same time. With the iPad, you can set the device on its side (landscape mode) while charging
6. Intuitive (damn it just makes sense on how to get to what you need nearly 95% of the time)
7. Consuming ‘rich’ content (why isn’t there a flipboard app for Playbook!)
8. Variety of accessories
9. iTunes integration (I don’t use iCloud but I do want to sync my music)
10. Facetime (PB has a camera but no Skype or other cross platform sol’n – second to the power plug issue I have with the PB is the lack of RIM to get Skype on board)

1. Screen size for reading books, its just right and easier to hold with one hand.
2. Screen size for handheld typing – much more comfortable to do this when I was not using the BT keyboard.
3. Multitasking and ability to ‘spin’ thru apps and close easily (Apple not as intuitive here)
4. Much better camera for photos and video, its size makes it a bit easier to use in this mode as well. (Although iPad3 will tip this in Apple’s favour I am sure.)
5. Support from non-iTunes media (AVI, MP4)
6. Micro USB – industry std and thus easy to find that cord to charge/sync
7. Integration of bezel with touch features (I found myself trying to do this over and over again on the iPad)
8. Handling of Adobe’s stuff (don’t need a lot but a significant number of our internal systems need this)
9. One click access (tool bar) to access important features/settings
10. Price (much better, but they have to be don’t they….)
11. Email more secure and accessible in concert with my Blackberry. I like the bridge, I think RIM did a crap job with the value prop to business for the security and admin here.
12. Email server integration better (mark and deleted on Exchange, Hotmail, etc. and it reproduces more accurately on accounts across devices)
13. Less likely to get stolen (it looks like a moleskin in my case, a iPad looks like an iPad)
14. I can fit it in my jacket pocket

Okay, so I read a lot. Not as much as I’d like but I am working on that.

Working in IT as analyst, consultant and product manager for over 15 years I found myself saddled with a lot of reading documents. So between these, a notebook, and a sundry of other stuff it often meant I was carting around 20 lbs of misc. To address this I switched to a backpack years ago, but still I eventually hoped to rid myself of all that extra weight.

So finally I broke down an bought a Sony eReader! I chose it over the Kindle from Amazon for several reasons:

1. It handled all the formats I needed from Microsoft Word to PDF to various ePUB
2. It had a touch screen (I bought the Sony PRS 600S)
3. It had a stylus and a means for me to make notes and highlights as I read, plus I could use the reader and its basic text and note taking functions to record information from a meeting, take notes on the fly, and bring these easily back onto my notebook.
4. The price was right, thesource.ca offered them for $199.99 ($50 bucks less than anyone else!) and the $200 mark for a quality eBook reader was the ‘magic’ point for my pocket book.
5. I liked the style better, I found the Kindle ugly and the keyboard annoying given I’d only need it for the odd on-line purchase. And (a very important point)…
6. I loved the fact that Sony had integrated with the Toronto Pubic Library allowing me to check out books on-line rather than go to the library. Given I buy most books on-line this was a HUGE reason to take the plunge and save myself the $20-$25 a book that I’ll only read once from Chapters! (So note to self, check out 8 books soon to recoup the costs!)

So I’ve been using it for almost a week now. I admit it has taken a little getting used to. I do wish it had a blue-tooth sync option for the laptop so I wouldn’t need to connect it every time. But of course Sony got cheap and makes you buy a proper charger separately so syncing with the USB also charges the device. I do wish it had a wifi sync as well for me to subscribe to newspapers (the next model up does this), but between the extra $100 and the fees for NYTimes or others it quickly became uneconomical, so I’ll solider on without this feature…

I am happy with the purchase, esp once I have figured how to effectively turn a page  (the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as an iPad) both on screen and via the buttons on the front of the eReader. I love the form factor, its a bit big for a pocket, but fits in my blazer pockets easily. And its light, really light. I thought I wanted the black version , but ended up with the silver. Turns out that the silver actually blends well with the e-ink screen and does a great job of just ‘disappearing’ when you are reading.

So now my commuting weight has fallen dramatically. I have taken advantage of on-line syncing technology, a fabulous new smart phone (Nokia e71), a 16 GB flash drive, and now the eReader to carry all the information I need and access the most important via the web on my phone, office PC, home iMac, home ThinkPad when ever and where ever. For commuting, having all my data in devices that allow me freedom and without the encumbrance of 20 lbs of baggage is wonderful.

For those pros out there tired of a ton of paper weighing them down, those that find themselves with loads of legal, financial, technical docs etc, I’d recommend looking to an eBook reader asap. Between this a smart phone and web storage you should be saving your back for old age!

Just reading how Google’s employees are being switched to Google OS and those that aren’t are choosing between Apple or Linux. The article goes beyond just the trials and tribulations between Google and Microsoft and adds additional food for thought with regards to whether Steveb and team can right the listing Microsoft Titanic.

To see the writing on the wall, one only has to look as far as the turmoil currently happening within the Windows Consumer division, a restart with Windows Mobile that leaves Windows Mobile 6.x users (including nearly every MS employee) out in the cold with a dead product, long-time partners jumping ship for new tablet and tablet-like O/S platforms, and its own inability to launch a competitive product in a space it was once the pioneer, not to mention a music player and store that never was…. What is left Live and XBOX? Both which have had and are being challenged by other services that are often seen as easier and more in tune with the needs of their users. It my opinion that without a tangible connection to what people want to do with computing (consume information about their business, their activities, their customers and their friends) tools that Microsoft continues to decrease its own relevance in the modern computing space.

Of course an argument is that Microsoft is tied tightly into business technology and is it’s platform of choice because they offer everything from the data centre to the desktop, but if we look at changes that are now starting to reshape the enterprise (and by this I mean all businesses that transact with customers large and small) market we see the client/server world coming to a end in the not-to-distant future.

Start by looking at the combined Software as a Service offerings and the Platform as a Service offerings that are enabling both traditional and up-start business to manage their financials, customers, inventory as well as computing and processing power you soon can conclude the tools that Microsoft offers for managing, deploying and developing are quickly becoming yesterday’s news. In fact, I would further argue given IBM, Oracle and SAP’s focus on developing in-memory databases, web-based, mobile and business intelligence solutions that these will have an near term immediate impact on sales of Microsoft’s SQL database as instances of this product will be replaced by solutions that can run complex transaction and data mining queries in-memory and report in real-time rather than via traditional I/O coding. If you combine this with the cloud becoming a repository for web-platform tools like AppExchange for the business and Apple’s Appstore or Google’s Apps for business for consumers and businesses alike and you see how on-premise is quickly becoming a model of the past.

It seems that the market also continues to question the relevance of Microsoft in the future. During the past decade there have only been two periods when the stock showed life, those being the end of the dot.com boom cycle and when Microsoft was expected to buy into the search wars by acquiring Yahoo! but failed. The stock market seems to question Microsoft’s future plans since the company is no longer rewarded with a premium multiple that innovative leaders such as Apple receive.

Yes, I know Microsoft has launched its Cloud strategy and has promising applications from Office 2010, SharePoint, Azure, and CRM – but many of these are still tied to heavy enterprise investments in Microsoft’s traditional tools and platform solutions. So for hybrid environments (Software+Services) this may forestall rapid migration, but it doesn’t mean that Microsoft is truly “all-in” in my opinion.

My final thoughts are these:

1. Microsoft has lost its way at the worst time in the consumer space, its customer and its partners are looking to Microsoft’s competitors for innovation and sellable solutions. Dell and HP are the first off the boat, so how will Microsoft shore up the army of independent and small developers that may soon follow. This space is critical because it connects the data, information and systems to the jobs people are doing in and away from the office. Innovation begins with the consumer these days not with corporate IT, even SAP gets this.

2. Ballmer has bet on a long term strategy over short term gains. I agree that technology investments are not something you should tie to quarterly results, but looking at the quarters and yearly figures above. Seems it’s time to put up or shut up about this.

3. The ‘elephants’ Windows, Information Worker Group, and AppPlat are massive parts of the companies ~$60B in revenues. These massive businesses have the company committed to a course that makes innovation hard and political. While there are forces at work (Azure, Office On-line, CRM) that may effect a change of course – it will take significant management and ethos re-direction to make this work. I am not confident Microsoft has the hutspa  to make the bold and risky choices needed for this to happen. As such Microsoft may loose the enterprise market just as it is loosing the consumer market.

* Full disclosure, I worked at Microsoft and had an amazing experience while there, opinions in this blog are based on my person view of the company given the challenges they face in the market and the publicly available sites I have referenced in this blog. I do not hold shares in Microsoft.

I have an iMac and love it. I have a Win7 notebook and think its great. I’d love a new smart phone and would consider an iPhone. However, I am stumped by how Apple continues to rise above the fray.

Case & Point: Apple releases the iPad to rabid millions with tones of hoopla. Reviews are everywhere both for and against. There are critiques and praises about what its missing, what it great and how it compares to tablets past (Newton to Compaq’s TC1000 (had one and loved it!)) and present (Amazon Kindle). Official reports cite over 300,000 in sales the first day.

Then day 2 comes. The party for some is over. But for many others the romance continues.

And what happens on Day 2 is the reason for this rant. Apple releases a new O/S! I always feel you should hang out for version 2 and that being an early adopter has it perils, but for a vendor to release such a significant update right after the product is launched just spark too much hubris in my opinion! Seriously how happy would you been to have just dropped north of $500 and told, “thanks and now we have improved it for the next guy.”

If a lesser vendor (read Microsoft) released Windows 7 then said the next day that Windows 8 with 3-D, holographic, 10-core 128-bit O/S was available next month there would be hell to pay! But to all those that worship the book of Jobs it like, “This is great! I got the new toy and its going to be upgraded in a couple months and be much better. The next guy is really lucky, but I got mine first!”

Ah well, I know you’ll be able to upgrade iPad v1 OS3 to OS4, but will the iPad v 1.5 with O/S4 native be even cooler for even less? Looking at Apple’s history for product innovation and the simple answer is “quite likely”.