Google: Changing of the Guard or More of the Same?

By John Duckgeischel

This week Google announced that effective April 4th, Eric Schmidt will step down as CEO, and co-founder Larry Page will resume the position of CEO that he relinquished in 2001. Fellow co-founders Larry Page, who has been very involved in Google’s various product lines, and Sergey Brin who focuses on strategic developments, both recruited Schmidt to become CEO in 2001. Since 2001 these three leaders have provided the guiding hand that helped produce the extraordinary growth that has made Google a household word. Before coming to Google, Schmidt held technical leadership positions at Bell Labs, Zilog, Xerox PARC. At Sun Microsystems he held the title of Chief Technology Officer, and later became CEO of Novell. Schmidt served on Apple’s board of directors from 2006 to 2009, deciding to resign when the competition began to heat up between Apple and Google.

Larry Page’s influence is well known within the company, however he has maintain a much lower public profile than Schmidt. As CEO, Page will be in charge of the day-to-day decisions facing the company while Schmidt will move on to become executive chairman. Brin is working on future products under development which will be announced sometime in the future. Many analysts feel that the shuffle at the CEO spot will not yield major changes, and that the move is more like fine tuning an engine that is already running strong. Google has shown itself to become a dominant contender in the search engine market and has made strong inroads in the fast growing mobile smartphone and device segment with its Android operating system. YouTube is finally beginning to generate serious income as well. If the company continues to innovate, strengthening products in existing markets and introducing new technology in emerging markets it should do well in the forseeable future.

CES 2011: Mobile Grows Up

By Leanne Westphal

At the 2011 Consumer Electronic Show a lot of the buzz at the show centered on the emerging mobile universe and specifically the Android-based devices. While CES features the latest and greatest in web connected, 3D and entertainment content driven HDTV’s, home entertainment systems, and high technology audio, it was evident that the show’s hottest mobile products drew the lion share of the attention. The big picture view is that the host of mobile devices based on Android, iOS and other mobile operating systems are moving us closer to the beginning of the post-PC era. One of the best examples of this emerging mobile technology at CES is the new Android smartphone, the Atrix, which may help make the bulky laptop become part of technology history.

Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer at Motorola Mobility stated that, "Consumers are increasingly using smartphones as their primary digital screens." As the year 2011 unfolds, there will be even more post-PC developments as Google’s Chrome OS is expected to be released this summer. During 2011, Apple’s iPad can expect some serious competition develop from Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” tablets. With numerous implementations of the latest technology, it is evident that there is a common vision of ending the traditional PC era and moving on to mobile hardware such as iPads, tablets, and Chromebooks. As the mobile segment continues to mature it is likely that hardware and software will be iOS or Android centric for the foreseeable future. RIM and HP are projected to sell significant numbers of devices however they will not be leading the pack. Window Phone 7, contrary to what Microsoft states, appears to be headed for the “also ran” category even though it represents the company’s best effort to date for this segment.

Related Link:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/216367-3/key_mobile_trends_of_ces_2011.html

2011 Technology Trends

By John Duckgeischel

As we say "goodbye" to 2010 and "hello" to 2011, there is an annual tradition of projecting the technology trends that will be most prevalent in the coming year.
In keeping with this tradition, consider the following....

1) In 2011, Senior IT Managers will continue to look at budgets that will stay tight for the coming year. That means doing more with less. In other words, how can technology be leveraged to provide more functionality while reducing cost? The strong growth trends utilizing cloud computing, virtualization and business analytics will continue into the New Year. New products that enable these technologies have become more sophisticated, easier to use and less expensive in 2010. Further enhancements and cost reductions can be expected in the coming year.

2) Mobile devices will be even more prevalent in 2011. New mobile devices and technologies make personal access to business and individual information easier than ever. Better mobile networks and device technology and apps means that more companies will join this trend in 2011, which already has strong momentum.

3) The model for improving unified communications continues to evolve. Advances in technology continue to enhance business communications, team workflows and accessibility of personnel and data. Add to this paradigm the new levels of accessibility to enterprise data on private or hybrid clouds via tablets and smartphones and it becomes easy to see how the implications for real life scenarios begin to explode. The bottom line is that we are still learning the best way to make use of all of this emerging technology in an integrated model that provides the maximum leverage.

2011 looks to be a great year. Enjoy the ride.