mot on SWiK

「セルベッサ」に見る業務パッケージの幸福な未来像:ITpro

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:00:20 -0700

ほとんどの企業は,このよう質問について真剣に考えたことはないだろう。ところが,「公開できる」という結論を下し,実際に社内システムのソース・コードを公開した企業がある。

The Mobile Linux War

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:40:14 -0700

A recent report from ABI Research highlights the rise of mobile Linux, estimating that 23 percent of the world’s smartphones will have a Linux operating system by 2013. It appears that much of that growth will come at the expense of Nokia’s Symbian, and that LiMo and Android will be the main beneficiaries. What the report doesn’t note is that last year ABI predicted that 31 percent of smartphones will have Linux by 2012.

Either there’s something to explain the change in numbers, or we should perhaps take our analyst reports with a grain of salt. However, Linux is undoubtedly moving fast: 15 handsets were launched earlier this year with LiMo, and after several demos and prototypes, anticipation for the Android is running high. But the jury is still out on which framework will win out with carriers and application developers.

LiMo has the backing of NEC, Motorola and Samsung as well as SK Telecom and Verizon. Android, through the Open Handset Alliance, has T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, China Telecom, Telefonica, Google and several others. The stated goal behind both efforts is to eliminate some of the costs associated with developing mobile applications for multiple operating systems by using open source. It’s a laudable goal, but the fight between the two for market share demonstrates how hard it will be to lower costs, as developers will still have to build for multiple platforms.

photo courtesy of the LiMo Foundation and NTT DoCoMo

AT&T, Vodafone May Buy Huawei’s Handset Biz

Mon, 19 May 2008 12:20:53 -0700

With Nokia, Apple and RIM all trying to flex their muscles and become the new gatekeepers of the mobile Internet, carriers are responding by making their own moves. AT&T and Vodafone are amongst likely buyers of Huawei’s handset unit.

Huawei Technologies, the largest mainland manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, is attracting interest from global industry players such as AT&T, the largest phone companyin the United States, and private equity firms including Blackstone on its sale of more than 50 per cent of its handset unit, sources said. (via)

The fact that carriers are looking to own a supplier of cheap mobile phones doesn’t bode well for the boys at Motorola!

Virtualization Goes Mobile With VirtualLogix

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:23:44 -0700

Motorola Ventures today put an undisclosed amount of money into Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup VirtualLogix, which aims to do for communications equipment and mobile devices what VMware has done for the server. I’m pretty leery of companies throwing around the v-word, but with its take on virtualization, VirtualLogix is actually creating value.

For proof, check out the plans for a sub-$100 multimedia 3G phone developed by Purple Labs using NXP chips running VirtualLogix’s software. The software allows a processor to run a rich operating system on the same chip that controls the baseband access. (In a typical smartphone — depending on the applications and radios needed — this takes two or more chips.) The end result is a high-end feature on a low-end phone using fewer chips. That’s excellent for device makers, but VirtualLogix counts among its investors TI and Intel, two companies that want to sell more chips.

VirtualLogix CEO Peter Richards explained this contrast away by saying the chip vendors just want to make customers happier. But while that may be true, what’s really behind the chip firms’ interest is VirtualLogix’s ability to take software written for single-core chips and run it on multicore chips by virtualizing the multicore hardware. Multicore chips aren’t in phones right now, but given how much we want our handheld devices to do, they will be.

The other beneficiary of virtualizing a communications device is the gear market, where VirtualLogix customers such as Alcatel-Lucent are using the software to combine multiple products, like call routing servers, call management servers, etc., into one box rather than four or five. Virtualization as offered by VMware and Xen is creating a lot of savings by allowing companies to reduce the number of servers they use in data centers, so it stands to reason that it can do the same in the telecommunications world.

March 10, 2007: Private Online Storage Gets $2.7M

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:51:29 -0700

For Freescale, It’s Beyer to the Rescue

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:38:57 -0800

When Freescale Semiconductor named Richard Beyer as CEO on Wednesday, many of my friends at the company felt the faint stirrings of hope. Freescale, which was spun off from Motorola in December 2004, is a kind of wallflower in the chip world.

It has some good products, but it also has some real problems that need solving before it can live up to the expectations set by its $17.6 billion buyout in September 2006. The buyout left Freescale saddled with $9.5 billion in debt. That’s a lot for a company that reported sales of $5.72 billion last year, down from $6.36 billion in 2006.

Freescale has three big problems. The first is that about a quarter of its sales come from its former parent, which is having a tough time all its own. The second is that it’s in so many markets — some of which are growing — while Freescale is standing still. The third and final problem lies in the fact that former CEO Michel Mayer was not the kind of leader needed to take a newly independent company down its own road.

Beyer may solve the third problem if he can step into his job in mid-March, listen to managers and figure out a strategy (likely involving a push to analog) that gets Freescale growing in step (or even ahead of) the markets it dominates.

To his credit, Beyer is walking into the job willing to listen. “It’s too early for me to presuppose that certain areas are the areas that we should focus on more,” he told me. As the CEO of Intersil, Beyer presided over several acquisitions and created a laser focus on analog chips. That strategy isn’t likely to work at Freescale, he said, which is too big in too many markets to pare down to just one.

As for the first problem, Freescale is trying to reduce the influence of Motorola on its earnings, but as Beyer points out, diversifying your customer base while continuing to satisfy your largest customers is a hard line to walk. “Motorola is very important to Freescale. We were its in-house semiconductor division and its objective was to serve the needs of Motorola, and serve the needs of others,” Beyer said. “What it doesn’t want to do is abandon its largest customer in favor of all other customers.”

Broad growth at the company, which reorganized its three market-defined product divisions into four product-focused ones at the end of 2007, may come if it can push deeper into the automotive segment, where it has a leadership position, and if it can take advantage of the transition to 4G cellular networks. There’s also the analog and sensor market, which Beyer knows from his days at Intersil.

Beyer managed to turn Intersil into a small but fast-growing analog company during his five years there. When asked what he thought Freescale’s growth opportunities were, he declined to get specific, but said, “I have some thoughts on areas where there are interesting opportunities by virtue of what I’ve been working on for the last couple of years.”

When pressed on analog and sensors, he said they were “certainly exciting.” Let’s hope Beyer can translate his excitement into growth.

MWC: Mobile OS Scorecard

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:44:06 -0800

It’s not as fun as counting delegates from Super Tuesday, and figuring out which mobile operating system is pulling ahead can be complex, but we’re on it. And while we’re not tallying intangibles such as the “cool” factor of the phone, and have no idea how well each will sell, we are tracking which operating system is being used on the 28 (by our unscientific count) new handsets that have launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. We still have three more days, so stay tuned.

LiMo, the Linux Mobile OS, has topped the list, with 15 phones launching and three prototypes planned for later this year. Motorola and NTT DoCoMo are heavily behind the LiMo efforts, with six and eight LiMo phones launching respectively.

Microsoft has managed to get its Windows Mobile OS on the Sony-Ericsson Xperia line of phones. Although it’s being trumpeted as a coup for Redmond, in reality it’s kind of a letdown compared to the rumors of Nokia signing up for some Windows action.

Until those rumors come true, however, Nokia is squarely behind Symbian, an allegiance the Finnish phone maker has proven via heavy investment. Its four latest phones, including the N96, run on Symbian, as will two Sony-Ericsson devices, one from Samsung and an LG, for a total of eight new handsets.

In other I-wish-this-were-more-exciting news, Android got a showing, but only on prototype phones running chips chips from firms such as Texas Instruments, ST Microelectronics and ARM Holdings. Maybe we’ll see more from Android at CTIA in April.

NoMo Moto? Is Motorola’s Cell-Phone Business Worth Buying?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:02:50 -0800

Motorola said today it’s exploring strategic options that include selling its handset business. The news comes on the heels of the company announcing a terrible fourth quarter, thanks to continued weakness in the handset business.

Any buyer should look carefully at Motorola’s handset business. By putting it up for sale, Motorola is admitting that the handset division is operationally weak, and to some extent, beyond redemption.

The overreliance on RAZR, and later its inability to get out of the rut of producing phones that never became “hits,” proves that the bureaucratic poundage was weighing the company down. Even if it was operationally sound, the company would need some vision to get back on track and fight it out with the likes of Nokia, Samsung, LG and newcomers likes Apple.

It is a hard fall for a once-proud company, which along with Nokia and Ericsson made up the triumvirate that controlled the wireless business with an iron fist. In order to understand how badly Motorola has stumbled, compare its daily sales of roughly 454,000 with Nokia’s daily sales of 1.3 million.

Recently, companies like Alcatel and Siemens have sold off their handset businesses to Asian handset makers. Those deals didn’t work out too well for the buyers, though. Buyers beware.

4 Reasons to Brace for a Turbulent Earnings Season

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:40:58 -0800

Stock markets around the world are tumbling, with the Dow staying firmly in negative territory even in the face of an emergency interest-rate cut. And ready or not, the parade of technology earnings is on its way as well.

A handful of tech bellwethers have already delivered their results for the latest quarter, and if last week was any indication of what’s to come, trading in tech stocks will be volatile. IBM kicked off the season on a happy note; its shares posted their biggest one-day gain in five years after Big Blue pre-announced surprisingly strong numbers. Intel, in contrast, failed to meet already diminished expectations, and saw its stock sink 17 percent last week alone. Intel has lost more than $50 billion in market value in six weeks, or nearly a third of its market cap.

Next up: Apple and Texas Instruments on Tuesday; eBay, Motorola and Netflix on Wednesday; and AT&T, Microsoft and Nokia on Thursday. The questions now is will they produce more IBM-like heroes or Intel-like goats?

I fear it’s the season of the goat. Here are four reasons why:

Stocks are still overrated. Sure, valuations are down — Apple is trading at a mere 25 times its forward earnings; it was above 30 for most of 2007 — but analysts have almost surely overestimated future earnings. On the whole, downgrades have been directed at the last quarter of 2007, not 2008. Most analysts are waiting for new guidance before adjusting their 2008 estimates. And their old estimates were made before the consensus view shifted abruptly toward a looming recession. Besides, the market’s mood has been so dark that any big downgrade triggers a selloff, and companies don’t like it when their banks trigger selloffs.
Earnings for the fourth quarter of 2007 are likely to be worse than those recently lowered expectations. Companies have two big incentives for shifting as many losses as they can to the most recent quarter: First, they can blame the weak economy, the mortgage mess, the credit crunch and the fools who started it all. Second, a bad fourth quarter of 2007 will make year-over-year comparisons in 2008 look that much better. And investors will be focusing on 2008.
Uncertainty, that stock market mood-killer, still rules. Yes, contrarians are starting to look for oversold stocks, and rightly so. But it’s still too early to know if the market at large will recover in the spring, or this summer, or…even later.
IBM shares did rally last week, but IBM has historically been an exception, performing reasonably well when the tech sector tanked. During the swoon in autumn of 1998, when the Nasdaq dropped by 32 percent, IBM stock gained 6 percent. In fact, it was credited with helping to start the recovery in tech stocks. And between March 2000 and December 2001, shares of IBM rose 20 percent while the Nasdaq sank by 60 percent.

So things are looking rocky for the next couple of weeks, but here’s one reason to think that the worst will be over soon: As I write this, dozens of news stories are already terming this a “stock market crash.”

We’re nowhere near crash territory. And the Fed has cut rates by three-quarters of a point, which should give short-term relief at the very least. But the panic in the press is often a signal that the frenzied selling is starting to reach its peak.

Open Source Software from Commercial Firms - Tools, Complements, and Collective Invention (eh 0404)

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:18:14 -0800

Open Source Software from Commercial Firms - Tools, Complements, and Collective Invention (eh 0404)

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:12:22 -0800

Overview of the World Wide Web Consortium (8)

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:32:45 -0800

"Third-class companies make products; second-class companies develop technology; first-class companies set standards."

Intel: WiMAX PC Card by June

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:41:57 -0800

Intel Executive VP Sean Maloney, at CES here in Las Vegas, said the company will have a “middle-of-[this]-year-release” for its WiMAX PC Card, a device that could help accelerate end users’ embrace of the nascent wireless technology.

Despite some recent bumps in the road for WiMAX, top executives from major WiMAX backers Intel, Sprint Nextel and Cisco all said at CES this week that they are bullish on the wireless technology’s future, albeit more so in countries other than the U.S. Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in his Monday afternoon keynote here that “for the next five to 10 years, WiMAX will have a significant advantage” as a platform for wireless broadband, and Cisco CEO John Chambers said Monday night that the networking giant “remains bullish” on WiMAX, especially in developing-country deployments.

Chambers, who we spoke with at a Cisco party here Monday night, said WiMAX makes great sense as an architecture for developing countries that don’t have an existing copper plant the way the U.S. does. Sometimes, he noted, copper wires get pulled out of the ground by scrap-metal thieves.

Ali Tabassi, Sprint’s vice president for technology development, said after a Monday panel that his company is still moving “full speed ahead” with its planned WiMAX rollout, with Chicago, Washington D.C. and Baltimore on schedule for deployment this year. The rumor we hear is that Sprint employees in Chicago are already testing the WiMAX network there. (Anyone want to tell us how it’s working?)

Intel’s Maloney, who spoke with us after Otellini’s Monday afternoon keynote, didn’t have any new WiMAX financing agreements from the company to tell us about, but did say that deployments of the technology are continuing strongly, worldwide. And Sprint’s Tabassi said there is a lot of interest in WiMAX from Asian wireless providers who have 2G networks, and are considering jumping directly to WiMAX instead of deploying 3G technologies.

Paul Kapustka, former managing editor for GigaOM, now has his own blog at Sidecut Reports.

Updated: Ex-Moto CTO, Now CTO of Cisco Systems. Short Interview

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:49:09 -0800

Motorola Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior traded Chicago for the San Francisco Bay Area. She has joined Cisco Systems (CSCO) as chief technology officer, San Jose based company announced today. She didn’t waste much time and has started blogging on her new Cisco blog.

Okay it is full of PR sanitized corporate speak, but having read her writings in the past I think this should be a good one to watch. I think the world of her abilities and Cisco picked up a great executive to add to their team. This move also explains why Motorola took down her blog. I am going to chat with her later today and update the post.

“For next few weeks I want to listen to what everyone at Cisco has to tell me and learn,” said Padmasree Warrior, just an hour after it was announced that she was joining Cisco Systems as the Chief Technology Officer. I got a chance to speak with her as she rushed between meetings. She declined to comment on the specifics of her switch from Motorola to Cisco.

“I have admired Cisco because of their technology leadership and their business model innovations and innovations from a larger perspective,” she said. In her mind Cisco’s apporach to global opportunities along with macro-shifts in the over communications and computing industries make her job most exciting.

Though she spent recent years at a mobile-focussed company, Warrior said that her 23-years-in-technology have given her the grounding she needs to adjust to an all-IP future. “For the longest time, communication technologies have been vertical,” she said. Video meant cable, voice meant telephone, and data translated into Ethernet. “It is all horizontal - now network is the platform,” she said.

I asked her if we are in a brave new world of COMMputing, where the lines of computing and communications have blurred to such a degree that you can’t tell the difference. Google and Amazon Web Services are perfectly good examples of this commputing movement. She agreed and promised to share more of her thoughts at a later stage - after she has settled down in the Bay Area and spent time in Cisco trenches.

Originally posted at 1.41 pm

Motorola C-Suite & The Ex-Factor

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:49:05 -0800

The recent executive shuffle at Motorola (MOT) - Ed Zander out, Gregory Brown in - prompted a visit to their press release archives, and what I learnt: there is a constant exodus of senior management. Some leave because they don’t get the top job (CEO) and others are asked to leave because they can’t do the job. Whichever way you look at it - this constant shuffling is a sign of a deeply troubled company, that needs to make some tough strategic decisions about its future.

Here is a short list of those who have come and gone in past five years.

July 27, 2002: President Ed Breen leaves to join Tyco.
September 22, 2003: Christopher Galvin, CEO and Chairman is nudged out by the board.
January 2004: Ed Zander is named CEO.
January 13, 2005: Mike S. Zafirovski, Motorola’s president and chief operating officer, tipped to get the CEO job resigns and is soon named CEO of Nortel.
February 19, 2007: Ron Garriques, a key executive incharge of mobile phone division leaves for Dell.
December 1, 2007: Gregory Brown, COO of Motorola to replace Ed Zander as CEO.
December 3, 2007: CTO Padmasree Warrior resigns from the company.

Photo by Katie Fehrenbacher/GigaOm via Flickr.

CtrlAltSuppr.com / Révélez les astérisques dans Firefox en Javascript

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:30:57 -0800

pour retrouver les mots de passe de firefox

T-Mobile Will Swap Faulty Sidekick Slide for Sidekick LX

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:43:08 -0800

T-Mobile launched the new Sidekick Slide earlier this month amid much fanfare, only to discover some major design flaws that got the device to reset itself. That really charged up the customers.

The Motorola-made device from Danger Inc. was quickly pulled from the market. T-Mobile today announced that Motorola (MOT) has identified the problem as an “issue relating to the battery contacts.Motorola also has identified and tested a solution which it will implement for existing devices, and incorporate into newly manufactured ones.”Meanwhile, if you bought the admittedly handsome device, then T-Mobile is giving you three options: Exchange it for Sidekick LX (for no extra charge), return it and use the money towards any other phone, or just wait for the fix from Motorola.

5 Open Questions About the Google Phone aka Android

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:49:19 -0800

OK, so the Google Phone is not really a phone, but instead a software stack that allows people to do cool things such as build applications and power devices that have never before been imagined. Yes, it also cleans dorm rooms and finds dates. Following the press conference call, however, here are five points about Android that remain…unclear.

Google (GOOG) says it’s open source, letting you download it and do whatever — except that carriers can create their own locked-down versions of the software with Android. That doesn’t seem very open to me.
Google says it is happy to share revenues from advertising with the carriers. Which is good news for the carriers, but if you are a Google shareholder, you want to know how much is going to be kicked back to the carriers, and if this will have a material impact on Google’s financials.
The first Android device won’t hit the market till the second half of 2008, and that, too, from one handset maker, HTC. Now as a developer, why would you opt for this platform when you have other options? (Apparently the browser inside the device will support desktop browser-compatible apps, which is a good thing.)
None of the handset partners are betting the farm on Android, but are instead hedging their bets. HTC will continue to do Windows Mobile (MSFT), an OS that makes them a lot of money. (A little arm-twisting from Redmond can go a long way). Motorola (MOT), on the other hand, is a founding member of LiMo Foundation, a rival group that has the backing of carriers looking to Linux Mobile as an OS option. So which effort are they going to put their resources towards?
With the exception of admitting that it is Linux-based and can work with Qwerty, non-Qwerty and different types of screen sizes, no real details are available on the tech specs of Android. For that we’ll have to wait. Andy Rubin did point out that it will need a 200-MHz ARM processor at the very least, so for some time it is going to be a smartphone-focused OS environment.

Full conference call transcript @ Engadget.

Google Launches Mobile Phone Platform, Android: What it Means, What Experts Think

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:04:41 -0800

Updated post press conference, read My Take #2: Google (GOOG) has just announced its much talked about Google mobile phone platform, Android, and has announced a large list of partners who are working with the company. The company said it’s worked with T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm (QCOM), Motorola (MOT) and others on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

Andy Rubin, who spearheaded the project, writes on the Google blog:

It’s important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo — one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you’ll see the first benefits. But we feel the potential gains for mobile customers around the world are worth the effort.

The first handsets are likely to be available in the second half of 2008, the company said. Other partners in the alliance include Sprint Nextel (S), Telecom Italia, NTT DoCoMo, Broadcom (BRCM), and a slew of other technology companies.

What is Android? A fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. It will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week, the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Who is missing? Quite a few large carriers, including Vodafone (VOD), Orange, SK Telecom, AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). Nokia (NOK), Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are among the handset makers not part of this alliance.

My Take: This is one massive PR move, with nothing to show for it right now, and it seems like there are other unknown reasons (Facebook ad platform launch perhaps) for the motivation here. No phones till second half of 2008 — in our ADD culture that is a lifetime. The partners — with the exception of HTC and T-Mobile — are companies who are, in cricketing parlance, on the backfoot. Motorola, for instance is not exactly a bastion of handset excellence. Sprint — we know how well they are doing.

MyTake #2: Following the press call, I actually have more questions than answers. They completely dodged my question about how does it reconcile with other mobile linux efforts which are backed by none other than partners like Motorola. Andy Rubin replied that all the software is available for the developers in a week, which is non-answer if there is any. Funny - no phones till second half of 2008 and they want developers to shift their attention from iPhone, Symbian, other Mobile Linux and Microsoft Windows Mobile. Even more convinced that this is a PR move. Not clear how this helps Google from a fiscal sense and its business implications for the company. Oh well, time to hound their press department.

What Others Say:

Chetan Sharma of Chetan Sharma Consulting: Google definitely assembled an impressive list of partners for this initiative. On a fundamental level, it still remains to be seen if this move is going to be transform the industry. Of course, everyone wants to be seen supporting openness, proof will be in the implementation and the business models that support this vision, otherwise this is just yet another initiative.

The initiative does help lower the cost of the handset due to cheap licenses for the stack and if this proves successful, some device manufacturers might give up their own efforts to minimize cost and focus more on hardware features that integrate well with Android. This is more an answer to Microsoft than to the carrier fragmentation Google has talked about. Is this going to be a successful Trojan horse strategy for Google remains to be seen.

Forrester Research wireless analyst Charles Golvin: The impact is broad across all players in the mobile environment, driving innovative developers to craft new applications that leverage both the mobile networks and the Internet, and helping to change the way consumers behave when on the go. Google is far from the only beneficiary, as competitors like Yahoo (YHOO) and even Microsoft (MSFT) stand to benefit should they embrace this approach; the impact will build slowly over time as initially the devices using this platform will form a very small percentage of the market.

Cisco Makes Its WiMAX Move, Buys Navini

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:53:21 -0700

After being skeptical of WiMAX for quite sometime, Cisco Systems (CSCO) is changing its tune, and has decided to play the WiMAX game. It is doing so by buying Navini Networks for a whopping $330 million in cash and stock. It was apparently one of the worst-kept secrets out there; the analyst community had been talking about the deal for nearly a fortnight.

Why this change of heart? One could point to United Nations/ITU giving their blessing to WiMAX. WiMAX is becoming quite popular with operators in emerging markets, where little or no prior infrastructure exists. Countries like India, China, Brazil and others are looking to building WiMAX-based wireless broadband networks. Of course, Cisco can’t let rivals like Motorola (MOT) get all the business.

Cisco posted this video on their blog explaining why they bought Navini.

Enterprise Software’s Youth Drain

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:20:54 -0700

By M.R. Rangaswami, publisher of SandHill.com and co-founder of Sand Hill Group

They say that youth is fleeting. In the enterprise software industry, the youth are fleeing.

One need only look at the hairlines of today’s software leaders. The current wunderkinds are not looking to create the next wave of corporate computing applications, but are instead gravitating toward emerging fields, such as web 2.0, biotech, and anything “green.”

Bill Gates was 19 when he founded Microsoft (MSFT). Steve Jobs started Apple (AAPL) at 21. Even Marc Benioff was in his 30s when he founded Salesforce.com (CRM) — and at 42, he remains one of the industry’s youngsters.

Software companies need to do more to attract the next generation of business leaders who will drive the evolution of the industry for decades to come.

Software’s Aging Leaders

Here’s what opened my eyes. I looked around at the attendees of our Enterprise 2007 conference this summer and was pleased to see many of the enterprise software industry’s leaders represented, including CEOs, VCs, professionals and analysts.

But then I did a double take: The average age of this elite group (including yours truly)? 50 years old!

Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, Henning Kagerman, Dave Duffield…all of them are solidly in middle age. A tremendous brain trust to be sure, but who is going to take the reins and lead the industry into the next era?

The next eye-opener? In a survey given out at the conference, these highly-successful industry leaders were asked whether they would advise their college-aged kids to start a career in the software business. More than half said they would, but nearly a third said they wouldn’t!

So where are all the Gates and Jobs of today? Many young entrepreneurs continue to receive venture backing for software companies –- in fact, software regained its title as the leading venture investment category during the second quarter. Notably, however, nearly as many are receiving backing to go into biotech or greentech or other emerging fields.

And within the software space, young business leaders are choosing web 2.0, open source, SaaS or consumer applications over traditional business apps. These are all attractive fields, to be sure, but the enterprise software elephant in the corner is a $600 billion industry waiting to be fed.

The new guard of software leaders operates differently than the old guard, usually with far less capital. And they are tuned into the online culture like no 50-year-old can be: they’ve grown up with it, and as such will be able to bring the consumer online experience to the corporation with ease.

Before I get too much hate mail about age discrimination, and in light Google’s recent legal troubles, I want to be clear that I’m not advocating hiring younger people over older people. I’m talking about the need for people with new skills and new ideas who are young enough (in years) to ride out the next 10 or 20 years of industry fluctuations.

The fact is that unless the software industry receives an influx of new talent, it will be difficult for the 50-year-olds to keep their companies’ relevant in the next era.

How to Rejuvenate the Industry

It is time for enterprise software companies and their investors to take steps to make the industry a more welcoming and attractive place for young workers. Here are some of my thoughts on how to attract the next generation of leaders:

• Make Room at the Top – It may be time for many longtime software company leaders to simply step aside. The same goes for members of the board. If Bill Gates can do it, anybody can.

By making a gradual transition (such as the one taking place at Microsoft) and tapping the right successors, software companies can receive the benefits of a fresh strategic perspective and a new outlook.

• Mentor Young Executives — Much of the brain trust of the enterprise software industry is rapidly approaching retirement. The only way to recapture this collective knowledge is to impart it to the next generation of executives.

While it is nice to think that today’s young execs can learn by watching, the pace of today’s business environment may make it difficult. Companies seeking to preserve this insight should consider a mentoring initiative – either formal or informal – to impart to its younger execs.

• Re-establish Entry-Level Positions — As the software industry evolved over the past 10 years, a wide variety of entry-level jobs in both business and engineering disappeared. Some jobs were outsourced, some were offshored, and some simply dried up during the economic downturn, never to be re-established.

There is no way that today’s software vendors will be able to promote from within and tap into next-generation thinking if they do not slot a significant number of entry-level jobs for new workers. These positions should be on both the technical and business side.

• Step Up Marketing to Universities — There is a perception among college graduates that all technology jobs are moving overseas. Anyone who has recently tried to find an engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area knows that nothing could be further from the truth.

The job market for software developers is almost as tight as it was during the dot-com boom. Engineering graduates will have their pick of companies, and industries, to choose from.

The software industry associations and the major companies themselves must raise their profiles in graduates’ minds. Efforts such as job fairs and promotions at universities can help achieve this.

• Develop Cross-Industry Recruiting Tactics — Recruiters are famous for tapping consumer packaged goods leaders to run tech companies – and for convincing former tech execs to run “green” or biotech companies. It is time for the software industry to expand its recruiting pool.

As other industries work to recruit the up-and-coming leaders that the software industry used to attract, the software industry needs to fight back. TCS is trying to overcome some of the talent crunch in India by recruiting talented non-engineers from other scientific fields for training as developers or other much-needed staff. The ramp-up is longer, but the results so far have been positive.

• Make the Industry a More Attractive Place to Work — In many ways, the software industry has always been one of the best fields to work in. Today it’s even better.

The business environment is fast-paced and rapidly evolving. There is the opportunity for international travel, rapid advancement, telecommuting and financial rewards. The faster the industry can get the word out about these benefits, the better.

• Set Up Internal, Innovation-Driven “Startups” — For many established vendors, incorporating the energetic and fast-paced climate of a startup is difficult to maintain as a company grows to have hundreds and then thousands of employees.

Many vendors, such as Motorola (MOT), have created internal innovation centers to foster the growth of new ideas, products and businesses. The atmosphere is more likely to attract a new generation of leaders.

I believe the software industry can do more to prevent the “youth” drain that I see happening today. What do you think? Is the software industry “older” than any other fast-growth industry? Is the entire concept of enterprise software fading away? Can vendors do anything more to attract new college grads? I welcome your feedback.

Update: Oracle Wants to Buy BEA Systems, BEA Wants More Money

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:22:54 -0700

Oracle (ORCL) continues on its enterprise software roll-up strategy. Having already gobbled up dozens of companies including PeopleSoft, it now has plans to buy BEA Systems (BEAS), offering $17 a share, or about $6.7 billion. Oracle offer is 25 percent higher than BEA’s recent closing price. Update: BEA, however, says that’s not good enough.

BEA has been under pressure lately from Carl Icahn, a corporate raider-turned-white knight. Icahn recently campaigned for management changes at Motorola (MOT) and Time Warner (TWX). He has 13% stake in BEA, which according to Dealbook cost him $663 million. That’s worth $871 million, if Oracle gets its way. Or a whopping $208 million in profit for Icahn in less than a month. Now that’s a good life!

Stuart Williams, Senior Analyst, with Technology Business Research gives a thumbs up to the deal:

BEA is a technology-focused firm that should find a good home inside Oracle. Oracle owns the software stack below the BEA middleware (OS and database), around BEA’s offerings (the complete Oracle Fusion Middleware suite), and above BEA’s offerings (applications). Oracle can integrate the BEA technology directly into the core of the Oracle stack, strengthening it, while at the same time removing a competitor and adding close to $1.4 billion in annual revenue to its coffers. TBR believes the potential acquisition is a strong win for Oracle. BEA will help Oracle as the company gears up to combat IBM for the leadership position in the middleware market.

For Motorola, WiMAX & Promise Of A Comeback

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:03:47 -0700

Motorola (MOT), once the dominant player in the world of mobility, has been going through a rough patch. No longer the leader in handsets, nor a prominent player in the global infrastructure sweepstakes, Motorola has become a middle-of-the-road player in the business it practically invented.

The Schaumberg, Ill.-based company is, however, betting big on WiMAX and the IP-based wireless broadband business to revive its fortunes. Motorola recently showed off its technical mettle at WiMAX World, held in its backyard of Chicago.

Motorola demoed a mobile WiMAX network capable of delivering broadband speeds that could handle multimedia traffic with relative ease. The demo network is a microcosm of Xohm, Sprint’s 4G wireless broadband network.

“This live demonstration provided just a glimpse of what WiMAX technology can deliver,” said Barry West, Sprint Nextel (S) CTO and president of its Xohm business unit. “We are on schedule to begin Xohm pre-commercial service in Chicago by the end of 2007, with commercial service planned in that and other markets beginning April 2008.”

I recently caught up with Motorola’s chief technology officer, Padamsree Warrior, to discuss WiMAX and its impact on broadband in general — and Motorola in particular.

Om: It seems Motorola is betting very big on WiMAX and feeling pretty bullish about the technology?

Padamsree Warrior: WiMAX is no longer a big bet; it is a big business. We have 40 trials in progress. The reason we’re excited about WiMAX is because I think it is a disruptor. Never before has there been a wireless technology that has been deployed globally at the same time, be it developed or emerging economies. It is very affordable and as a result, you can now connect rural areas and metro areas. Furthermore, it is complimentary with existing technologies.

Om: Why do you see it as a disruptor?

PW: We think it is the next big step in wireless broadband, mostly because it is more data-focused and is a flat, IP-based technology. Cellular technologies were designed to offer voice services, and had data overlays. That is why 3G — despite all the progress — is still pretty inefficient when it comes to data.

WiMAX, on the other hand, has a pretty flat, IP-based architecture. The base stations don’t have to be huge, which means the real estate needed to house those base stations are quite modest. That is why they are called zero-footprint base stations. At the same time, Intel (INTC) is driving the chips’ costs lower. There are spectral efficiencies that allow you to drive more capacity. That lowers the cost on both the op-ex and cap-ex side.

Om: So from that standpoint, it makes sense for the emerging economies where WiMAX completely bypasses the need for copper-based infrastructure?

PW: Exactly. For instance in Pakistan, Wateen, one of the private telecom companies, set up a WiMAX network across the country in less than a year and is offering wireless broadband in nine cities. There are countries that are at a 2G level right now, and the operators there who haven’t invested in 3G spectrum are simply leap-frogging to WiMAX.

Om: But what about the developed world? Countries where people spend big dollars on wireless services, say, the U.S., or countries in Europe?

PW: If you look at Sprint [see video at the end of the post], I think what they are doing is something radical. Sprint is talking about unfettered access to their network. That is pretty disruptive. Similarly in the Netherlands, one of the highest broadband-penetration countries, people are looking for more connectivity on the go. There is a company called WorldMAX that is going to offer a wholesale service, and I think interesting business models are going to come out of it. Because of the cost structure, it isn’t difficult to imagine devices like digital cameras being connected to WiMAX networks in the future.

Om: Can you give us some insight into the kind of devices that are going to be connected to the WiMAX network? Do you think the handsets of today will just have WiMAX radios built into them, and we can seamlessly roam between 2G, 3G and WiMAX networks?

PW: We will have our mobile Internet device by the end of 2008, and it will have multimode capabilities and will roam between GSM or CDMA networks. I think initially it will be single-mode devices, and eventually become part of the multimode devices, including mobile phones. But I think the real role is using that bandwidth for Internet browsing and other such activities.

Who’s Afraid Of Apple & Google? Not Symbian

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:43:50 -0700

The recent entry of Apple (AAPL) and the looming Google (GOOG) OS for mobiles are a cause of concern for everyone – from handset makers to mobile carriers. Their mobile forays should be of serious concern for Mobile OS makers such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Symbian. While Apple wants to gobble up the high-end smart phone market, Google wants to come from below and commoditize the Mobile OS business.

Jerry Panagrossi, vice president of US operations for smart phone OS maker, doesn’t seem to be too worried (or doing an awesome job of faking it) about the two competitive threats to his London-based company’s livelihood.

“The US market for smart phones has been mostly enterprise related, but Apple has jump started the consumer demand for smart phone,” he said in a chat earlier today at our offices. “Apple’s market share gains show that devices can make a difference,” said Panagrossi.

He believes now handset makers will start thinking about making interesting and innovative handsets available in the US. Hopefully some of them will be using Symbian’s mobile OS, commonly found in high-end Nokia (NOK) and Sony Ericsson (SNE) mobile phones.

The number of Symbian-based phones increased 44% to 34.6 million in the first six months of 2007 from 24 million in 1H 2006, with a quarter of those sales coming from Japan. The recent success of Nokia N95 and E-Series phones has also helped Symbian boost its revenues to about $172 million. It is not clear if the company turned a profit.

Nokia will soon launch a US 3G version of its best selling N95 phone soon, and hopefully that will be enough to jump start OS maker’s anemic market share in the US market. I don’t know how they are going to do that unless they come up with smart phones for CDMA-based carriers.

Yet, they seem to be in buoyant mood. Symbian forecasts that US demand for smart phones is going to get into high gear around Christmas time and will grow at a rapid clip through most of 2008. That means new mobile handsets in the US.

Symbian team was carrying the new Motorola (MOT) Z8 slider that is based on their OS, and it did look pretty sweet. (It was a remarkable improvement over Motorola’s UI.) Most of the newer Symbian-based phones include Motorola Z8 are packed with multimedia features, thanks to a recent upgrade of the OS by the company.

Symbian predicts that most of the high-end features found in Japanese handsets such as advanced 3G, motion sensors and TV playback are going to become commonplace in 2008. The push he believes will come from the carriers, they believe.

“Our experience shows that when the mobile market reaches a level of maturity, the demand for smart phones grows sharply,” Panagrossi said, pointing to Japan and Europe as examples. “In a saturated market innovation around handsets becomes a key factor.”

“Apple has raised the bar in term of usability, and there are many fast followers (handset makers such as LG and Samsung) who are taking notice,” he points out. At present there are three UIs on top of Symbian – Nokia’s S60, Sony Ericsson’s UIQ and MOAP (very popular in Japan) and possibility exists that another UI could emerge in the near future.

When asked about Google OS, Symbian folks said that all that is out there has been rumors. When it happens, they will talk about it at that point. Panagrossi said that the company has spent over $750 million on developing its OS, and has a developer network, along with partnerships with handset makers and carriers, that others will have to develop.

“We have been doing this for ten years, and it has taken us many man years to come up with a mature solution,” he said. Lets hope that is enough.

DVLA Online Vehicle Licensing | Home

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:10:15 -0700

10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:16:39 -0700

Sun Microsystems is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA in order to better reflect the company’s role in new network infrastructure, and maybe — just maybe — to give its shares some added juice. (CEO Jonathan Schwartz gives his reasons on his blog.) Here’s 10 companies that we think could use an extreme ticker makeover.

1. Apple (AAPL) to (JOBS) in homage to their feared and revered leader, Steve Jobs.

2. Sprint Nextel (FON) (S) to (XHM) since they are betting the farm on their WiMAX networks.

3. Qualcomm (QCOM) to (MMOB) since almost everyone is suing them, just like the mob back in the 1980s.

4. AT&T (T) to (IFON) because we all know what is juicing their market share and revenues.

5. Yahoo (YHOO) to (NOGO), which is short for Not Google. You could also take it literally.

6. News Corp (NWS) to (TOM) — after all, who doesn’t want to be MySpace Tom’s friend?

7. Motorola (MOT) to (RZR), because they’re hoping for lightning to strike twice.

8. Vonage (VON) to (GON). Yup, the VoIP service providers are falling like flies.

9. Microsoft (MSFT) to (LIVE) on Nasdaq and (WIN) on NYSE. It’s in keeping with their brilliant branding strateg(ies).

10. Viacom (VIA) to (SUX). No commentary needed.

GigaTeam had a fun time brainstorming these, but we’d love your suggestions. Help us out in the comments.

Net Brazil aims for 150 Mbps over Cable

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:32:56 -0700

DOCSIS 3.0, the next-generation cable broadband standard, has been the subject of much debate here in the U.S., with Comcast (CMCSA) Chief Executive Brian Roberts doing most of the talking, and promising speeds of up to 160 megabits per second. NET Brazil demoed a system based on DOCSIS 3.0 using Motorola (MOT)technology/equipment at the ABTA conference in Brazil.

The DOCSIS 3.0-based cable broadband systems are gaining traction in the international markets such as Singapore, where Starhub has already started to make the transition. There are two likely reasons for the overseas popularity: one, the absence of legacy systems, and two, smaller-sized networks as compared with gigantic networks in the U.S. that would have to be upgraded. (via)

Backgammon Motif Play

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:30:33 -0800

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MOT

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:47:47 -0800