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10 Lessons the European Consumer Tech Industry Has for Enterprise Computing
By: Eric Lundquist
2009-09-04
Article Rating:    / 13
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10 Lessons the European Consumer Tech Industry Has for Enterprise Computing (
Page 1 of 2 ) NEWS ANALYSIS: eWEEK's Eric Lundquist recently stopped by the IFA show in Germany and found that the consumer market is now the biggest testing ground for enterprise technology. He offers a look at 10 consumer technologies that enterprise IT managers need to know about now so they can prepare their IT infrastructures for the future.
I stopped
for a few days at the big IFA consumer technology show in Berlin, Germany. Once, it was technology
developments in the business sphere that eventually moved to the consumer
space. E-mail, personal computing and mobile phones originally found their home
in the business space before branching to the consumer world. Now, the trend is
reversed with products such as the
iPhone, flat panel displays and cloud-based social applications first
appearing in the consumer space and then finding a home in business. Here are
10 computing and technology trends from the IFA show and my guess at when, and
if, they will play in the business world.
- 1. 3-D HD. Sony made a big deal in introducing its
3-D-compatile Bravia LCD television, and Panasonic introduced an
alternative 3-D TV based on plasma technology. Im not sure the world
needs another standards battle, this one in 3-D, but that is currently what
is shaping up. In any case, both companies and many of the speakers at IFA
were proclaiming that 3-D was ready to move out of the movie theatres and
into the home. Imagine you and the gang all wearing your 3-D glasses
watching NFL Sunday. In any case, just as flat panels soon took over the
corporate desktop, there is a role for 3-D in business. The first niche
that comes immediately to mind is modeling and dispersed product
development where the ability to look at prototypes in 3-D would be a real
benefit. I dont think the world is ready for real time conferencing in
3-D yet.
- 2. The next big wave in personal computing. Im not
sure the
world is breathlessly waiting for the Oct. 22 introduction of Microsofts
Windows 7 operating system, but the vendors would have liked to have
the event come months earlier. The October date is too late for back to
school and probably too late for a big holiday Christmas push. In any
case, we are seeing computer introductions with the Windows 7 download to
come later. Samsung introduced a very stylish, 9-hour battery life laptop
called the Ultra-thin Notebook X420. It may run Windows but clearly its
design model was Apple. The computer vendors are all stacked up waiting
for Windows. I met analyst Rob Enderle who claims the upcoming Windows 7
launch will be the biggest deal in personal computing since, well,
personal computing.
- 3. No PC needed. At one time both Microsoft and
Hewlett-Packard tried mightily to convince consumers that the PC would be
the center of the home technology universe. That didnt happen and TVs
with Internet access and video cameras that post on their own to YouTube
are proving you dont need a PC to connect with the Internet. What does
this mean for business? Your iPhone or other mobile device is now
connecting you directly to the company. Marketing is using Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn to create and distribute its marketing messages.
E-mail and applications are being hosted in the cloud and being accessed
by smart, mobile devices. The PC will always be part of the corporate
landscape, but as an equal player instead of center stage.
For
a look at the 10 attributes an IT manager needs, please click here.
- 4. No person needed. I stopped by the Sony technology
booth to see some of the technology under development. Three prototypes
caught my eye. One was a prototype purchase system where a user could
purchase movies and music simply by passing their smartphone near a
receiver. And, yes I know that fewer and fewer people are purchasing
movies and music with a phone or anything else. The second was a camera
that transferred photos and displayed them automatically in an electronic
frame when the camera was seated in a base. The third was a data transfer
system where devices that were in range could be identified as a secure or
insecure data partner based on past history and present characteristics.
What struck me was that all three products operated on their own without
any user involvement. This holds a lot of implications with business
organizations dealing with electronic payments and device security. Maybe
the security problem all along was the user who neglects security setting
and warnings.
- 5. The virtual personal/company computing system. If
Windows 7 does spur a wave of new product introductions (which I can
guarantee you it will), the corporate CIO and business managers are going
to face a budget roadblock. Users are going to want light, attractive
laptops with a range of multimedia capabilities and nine hour battery
life. The corporate bean counters are going to point to the grim revenue records
of 2009 and say forget the computer replacement budget. Enter innovation
where vendors anxious to sell systems, retailers anxious to get consumers
back in their stores and IT execs who realize you can very easily install
both a virtualized business operating system and a virtualized personal
operating system on the same laptop. The Best Buy type retailers will
offer corporate discounts for employees, the employee can get and keep the
system they really want and corporate security execs can blow off the
company's virtualized operating system if the employee gets canned. Do I
know for sure this will happen? It was one of the main topics at an IFA
panel on the U.S. retail market.
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