Digital Living

Skype video call is always great, now imagine what happen if the upcoming iPhone 4 have front camera with skype/video call capability!

Distance would be shrink significantly. People can 'communicate and see each other' quickly and easily, anytime, anywhere. And -- if you have a little baby -- you might be able to see her 'video stream' activity, anytime anywhere too, as it happen!

Such would be truly truly awesome.

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Long queue for iPad (from around the globe)

Starting May 28, 2010, iPad start becoming available in the following countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• Spain
• Switzerland
  
• UK 

This is how people respond to such. Truly fascinating. Truy awesome too!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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If people are using social networking software during working hour, should we call it social networking or "SOCIAL NOTWORKING" ? :-D -arv

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Latest news: Apple surpass Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world (by market cap)

I truly wish Bill Gates is still at Microsoft. Just like Steve Jobs, he's truly the DNA, brain, heart, soul of creativity, source of greatest leadership and amazing ability to stay relevant in market at Microsoft. In the past seeing him keep Microsoft humming, leading ahead of the pack -- and stay relevant to everybody no matter what changes is happening in the industry at those time (especially 1984 - 1992 and 1975 - 1983 period), was truly superbly amazing!

May 26, 2010:

Apple has surpassed Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world by market capitalization.

Apple's move comes as the company's iPhone, and now its iPad tablet computer, have taken on more of the personal computing tasks once handled by computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system and other programs.

Market cap is the dollar value of a company's outstanding shares. On Wednesday, Apple Inc.'s shares slipped $1.11 to close at $244.11, making its market cap about $222 billion.

But Microsoft Corp.'s stock fell $1.06, or 4.1 percent, to close at $25.01, for market cap of about $219 billion.

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54 years ago, this May (1956), the legendary Thomas Watson Sr. pass his IBM CEO position to Thomas Watson, Jr.

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. become general manager of CTR in In 1914 at the age of 40. During the next 10 years, he dispensed all CTR's non-tabulating business, concentrating his effort into tabulating business, and turned CTR into an international enterprise renamed IBM in 1924. Watson instilled a strict, professional demeanor in his employees that set IBMers apart from the rest of the crowd.

IBM achieved spectacular success with its tabulating machines and the punch cards that were fed them. From the 1920s through the 1960s, it developed a huge customer base that was ideal for conversion to computers, and Watson's son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., was an enthusiastic supporter of computers.

Tom Watson, Sr. is widely known and remembered not only for his accomplishment in building IBM into a great business. He also being remembered for his great leadership and inspiring did. He coined the terms "THINK" that spreads across IBM offices around the globe. He established the remarkable IBM values that people respectably praises until today; the same values that Louis Gerstner later on re-established, to bring IBM back to its glory. (Louis Gertsner once reportedly said: "For IBM to recover, it's the Thomas Watson's IBM value system that we need to re-create")

People praises Tom Watson Sr. also for many great things that he did. Some of which was written in IBM Song-Book in the past. Some of its lyrics goes like this:

----------

1 To: THOMAS J. WATSON Tune: "Auld Lang Syne" T.J. Watson - you're our leader fine, the greatest in the land, We sing your praises from our hearts we're here to shake your hand. You're IBM's guiding star throughout the hemispheres, No matter what the future brings, we all will perservere. You've made our IBM so great in every land supreme, Our service meets all needs of men and works just like a team. You've brought us through to victory, with leadership that's prime, We'll always love and honor you for the sake of Auld Lang Syne.

1 

----------

1 

54 years ago, this May 1956, four years after becoming IBM's president, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., succeeded his father -- Thomas J. Watson, Sr. as IBM CEO. Then the IBM era as a great computer/mainframe company start to begin.

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J Allard -- Another great Microsoft visionary -- the 'father of XBOX' -- is leaving?! (what a big miss)

J Allard was the brain, movers and shakers behind XBOX. He was instrumental in making it truly great and technically successful. He was also the guy that convinced Bill Gates to embrace the internet (he wrote the memo to "Windows: the next internet killer app"), which later on gives birth to Bill Gates' now famous note: "The internet tidal wave" -- which strategically transform the entire Microsoft focus and attention at that time towards embracing the internet fully (and rapidly).

The most recent news on him was that he might be leaving Microsoft, because Mr. Steve B** axe the Courier initiative. In my view: J Allard is indeed a product visionary. On the UI side, he seems even better than ex Lotus Notes (aka Iris associate) founder Ray Ozzie, who is now leading the strategic technical (software+services) vision and architecture at Microsoft.

According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft's Chief Experience Officer and CTO for its Entertainment and Devices division, J Allard, has been on sabbatical from the company for the past short while and is "unlikely to return" -- all due to the fate of the Courier. According to Foley's sources, Allard was "the champion" of the Courier, and had reportedly made his feelings about the device and its ultimate demise clear on numerous occasions -- including, of course, directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. According to another of Foley's sources, things eventually got so heated that Ballmer "showed Allard the door" because of their disagreements about the Courier's potential.

We will see where the "Courier" concept will goes then. Would it be appeared through Sony implementation and articulation of the concept? Would it be implemented by other company instead? Or would Microsoft eventually (re)-embrace it? I guess it remain to be seen.

Under the leadership of Sir Howard Stinger, Sony looses the 'father of Sony PSP' (Ken Kutaragi) -- who built PSP business from scratch until it dominates 50% revenue of Sony at its time. Under the leadership of Mr. Steve B**, Microsoft looses the 'father of XBox and one of the product visionary at Microsoft -- J Allard', which -- in this context -- could also mean loosing the edge to the really cool, innovative and superbly practical "Microsoft Courier" concept!

Sony -- under Sir Howard Stinger -- make some of its biggest market share and revenue loss in Sony history. It remain to be seen how Mr. Steve B** would navigate Microsoft further into the future. My feel: for Microsoft to be shine, cool, relevant and truly dominating once more: Bill Gates needs to be back.

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Google celebrates 30 years of Pacman!

Go to http://google.com and see the latest Google "doodle" in the shape of a pacman!

It was exciting to remember how 30 years ago, the best video game is in the form of a pacman -- "semi realistic", 2D only, with blink and colors for attention and impact.
How different it look and feel from today's game that feels super realisitc, grabbing our attention with beautiful/realistic sound effect, and often comes in 3D. :-) 

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Evolution of Facebook's access & privacy control (2005-2010)

The sequence of diagrams show that across years, Facebook is (by default) becoming more and more "open for all", allowing anykind of information to spread high and wide across the public and open internet, ... unless we change our default settings and profile.

If such trend continues, would this mean that one day the internet become "overly too noisy" ? that even a person's status update -- which was initially intended only for his/her closest families, eventually "unawarely" spread across to friends on facebook (like what facebook does today), yet -- even doesn't stop there -- cascadingly spreads across on the public internet, hence if somebody is using google in the "future" and searching for particul word, they will found such 'status update of that person' spread across their google search result -- which make the internet search result become less useful, because the internet content become too noisy ??

We'll see how the future goes. How the "open facebook" and the "eventually more selective" google search will evolve and "balancing out perfectly" once more, into the future.

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Android sales surpass iPhone (in the US market) -- and my view/experience about it

Recent news that spread on the internet is that Android sales in the US start to surpass Apple's iPhone.

RIM Blackberry still at the top with 36% market share. Apple own 21% of the market. Yet Android recently makes 28% penetration, which makes it now own the second position after Blackberry.

While this is good news, my personal experience with the early/current Android device is this:

• It can do touch, but its gesture design is still less perfect. (For example, many times I'd like to flip and scroll between pages, yet Android 'mis-interpret' it as a click instruction which then open an application instead).
• It can do photos, but it take less perfect picture, and the photo album scrolls pretty slowly.
• The menu system still pretty confusing at times, as it combines between 'touch gesture' and 'escape button' and 'menu button' mode. At times, when you interact with your photos or email or stuff, you get 'confused' whether to act on it you should do a 'touch', or should press an 'escape button' or should press the 'menu button' instead. Such is annoying and many times pretty confusing.
• I can connect it to my Mac. But it doesn't being recognized as an external drive.

My personal view and opinion as of now: Android device is also cheaper indeed. But compare to my iPad/iPad/Blackberry experiences, it is no match (yet). It can do something that -- at a glance -- seems like Apple's indeed. But it is (still) less less less than perfect (as of now). The impact probably would be on customer satisfaction, once they really have touch the device, and start comparing it to what they hear (and see) through the ad.

The total experience is significantly different.

Android price is probably one of the 'key factor' that makes it popular 'beyond' Blackberry existing OS capability today, and -- at the same time -- makes it becoming acceptable solution 'below' iPhone perfect and meticulous  simplicity and quality -- for now.

Perhaps these are the early 'limitations' imposed by Android devices. Hopefully in the future, Android touch gesture and Android devices capability as a whole will significantly improve, hence make it becoming a better (or even a perfect) device for mobile browsing, mobile connecting, and mobile working altogether.

ps: I still longing for those great HP/Palm-WebOS based device to come out in the market. Such device might have the pricing/openness appeal of Androids, yet at the same time bring the excellent gesture and excellent user experience that is as meticulous and as passionate as Apple as well. A "perfect" device for the 2nd market position, in my sense.

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"Verticalization" of the IT Industry

Take a look how the strategic structure of the IT industry significantly changed the past few months and years.

While in the past, horizontal layering of solutions is the norm -- Application company stacking horizontally on top of Database company; Database company stacking horizontally on top of Operating System company; OS system company stacking horizontally on top of Hardware company; Hardware company stacking horizontally on top of Microprocessor company -- seems such structure increasingly vanished.

Oracle recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems, HP on going acquisition of Palm, Apple acquisition of NEXT Computer (in the past), and most recently: SAP acquisition of Sybase, all these indicate a strong trend forward that "verticalization" of the industry would surely happen.

While at a glance the overall structure of the entire stack looks the same, what really happen beneath the surface is this: the ownership of the stack itself become totally different. While in the past, every company focuses on their own layer and create their differetiation by being 'horizontally flat' across the stack and shared everything else beneath or above them, nowadays seems many major player area consolidating. buying or start owning the critical stack that reside beneath or above their stack as well. This is being done to create unique/exclusive advantage and uncomparable (and un-copy-able) differentation.

• That's why probably soon (within 6 months or 1 year) we'll see Oracle database running exclusively on Oracle Sun hardware, Oracle application running exclusively (or most optimumly) on top of Oracle own database, on top of Oracle own Sun Hardware.
• That's why probably soon we'll see HP producing a new HP Tablet running HP's own Palm WebOS -- which exclusively available from and to HP only.
• That's why probably soon we'll see SAP releasing SAP next generation, which runs exclusively (or optimumly, whatever) on top of Sybase database -- along with database licensing and pricing scheme that make purchasing separate Oracle database license irrelevant.

I conclude these as "the verticalization of the IT industry". In such scheme, the industry is verticalizing in the sense that every single company -- which was collaborating and co-creating through their shareable horizontal layer in the past, now transform their game by creating (and exclusively owning) critical stack that is major to their business, and in the process create a unique and exclusive differentiation that produces a 'lock in' which can not be gained (nor emulated) by any other stack nor company which doesn't have similar capability.

As a result of that, the structure and pattern of competition might also change in the future.

• People, consumer and buyer might eventually need to choose "solution stack" that really fits their needs. Commoditization of hardware, commoditization of software might no longer happen, because now suddenly the 'complete vertical stack' is the new norm.
• Into that picture, brand and consumer loyalty might increase once more. People might not too 'quickly' switching from one brand to another, because now one brand has a totally different style and flavor from the other.
  

Such emerging 'vertical structure' might bring a new competitive scheme to the entire IT landscape. And as the result of that: innovation and competition might flourish and reborn in a totally different style from the past.

Some companies might fail and vanish in the process, some companies might flourish and dominate even more. But one thing for sure: the level of innovation, competition and competitiveness in the industry would be probably increased to a new level and height we probably never seen before.

People say that IT business landscape and competitiveness keep swinging like a pendulum. We transform from the era of IBM mainframes, to the era of Mini, to the era of PC, to the era of mobile devices, to the era of the internet, to the era of 'everything and everybody connected'. Yet while innovation progresses at exponential rate in the eyes of the consumer; it is truly fascinating to see and realize that beneath the underlying structure of the IT industry itself we fascinatingly see something that is on the surfae moving and innovating forward so fast, yet at the same time, quickly consolidating into something which eventually might resemble something that we (already) have seen and experience in the past.

-arv

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