Privacy Proves to Be Evasive for Smartphone Users

By John Duckgeischel

Privacy concerns first came to light for iPhone and iPad users with the news that the devices made by Apple record user movements. Now a Wall Street Journal article reports that Android-based mobile devices continuously send user location information to the Google mother ship. To alleviate users’ concerns, Google issued a statement that this activity is not a privacy threat. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that smartphones using Google’s popular Android operating system constantly transmit user location data to Google. The news quickly led to new calls for federal legislation to protect the privacy of smartphone users. But Google says the practice is not a threat to privacy.

“We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing, and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices,’’ a Google statement said. Google has taken the position that it has been upfront about what it is doing. Google displays a very high profile notice on Android phones that asks users if they give permission to let the company “collect anonymous location data”. Google states that the location information about the phone is kept separate from the identity of the phone’s owner. John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog, a Washington D. C. advocacy group stated “These aren’t smartphones, they are spy phones.” The group is requesting that laws be put in place that make sure that phone users have the option of not being tracked. “Increasingly, children have iPhones and Androids at age 13, 14, 15, 16, when they are still very vulnerable to predators,’’ Congressman Edward J. Markey stated. “It makes it a lot easier for a predator if they can actually know where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re likely to go.’’ The controversy has spread to Europe where many countries have strong privacy safeguards in place and are especially sensitive to the latest revelations.

Related Link:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/04/23/smartphone_privacy_fears_raised/

Salesforce.com’s Radian6 Buy Comes with Marketing Opportunity

By John Duckgeischel

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s history of success is largely based upon his ability to make the most of business opportunities. This week’s Radian 6 acquisition for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock is the latest example. Salesforce is well known for its customer service and Salesforce automation offerings via its software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer relationship system, however Benioff sees a broader horizon with its latest acquisition. Salesforce has made clear that it intends to become “the enterprise cloud computing company” Radian6, a pioneer in social-media measurement , could be the kernel of what eventually becomes a fully fledged marketing suite offering from Salesforce.

Radian6 will help Salesforce customers interface with and monitor activity on Chatter and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which has become an important to companies that want to manage their brand on the internet. As Salesforce has seen competitors make moves into the marketing arena, such as SAS buying AssetLink, Teradata acquiring Aprimo, and IBM picking up Unica, the Radian6 acquisition may the first of several moves to bolster its own marketing related offerings. Potential future acquisitions could include Marketo or Equloa that are known for their lead and campaign management capabilities. As the competition heats up in this space, it would help Salesforce strengthen its foray into marketing and help the company move a step closer to its dream of being “the enterprise cloud computing company”.

Related Link:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400634

Apotheker's Dual Vision for HP

By John Duckgeischel

Although cloud computing is a major part of HP’s future, it still wants to leverage its strong relationship with consumers. Unlike IBM, which walked away from the consumer market when it sold Lenovo in 2004, HP will try to extend its business with consumers beyond just laptops and printers. That is why Apotheker’s plan includes a focus not only on cloud computing, but also on WebOS, the mobile OS that was part of the Palm acquisition in 2010. HP also intends to leverage its strong relationship with corporate IT as it expands its cloud computing service offerings. "What we really aim for is that individual within an enterprise, the famous -- for the lack of a better term, forgive me if it's a horrible term -- 'prosumer”, said Apotheker.

It is an understatement to say that Apple has a healthy relationship with its consumer base. HP plans on expanding its business by building its business from both the consumer and enterprise perspectives. HP intends on building a WebOS product line that can be easily connected to the HP supplied enterprise infrastructure. HP believes that it can build on its multifaceted strengths to establish as vision that will play well for consumers, the enterprise and Wall Street.

Related Link:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214688/Three_bullet_points_Apotheker_s_battle_plan_for_Apple_IBM_the_world?taxonomyId=15&pageNumber=2

EEOC Federal Agency Expects 40% Savings Using Cloud

By John Duckgeischel

The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has predicted that the agency will save over 40% during the next five year period as it transitions its financial management application to a cloud computing vendor. The winning vendor in the competitive bidding process was Global Computer Enterprises (GCE) of Reston, Virginia. The five year contract for $10 million follows after GCE won a similar contract with the Department of Labor, which included 12 sub-agencies and offices, in 2010. "We're not ones to break new ground," commented Jeff Smith, CFO of the EEOC, which enforces anti-discrimination laws in American workplaces. "It was important to us that the Department of Labor had already done this with GCE from a past-performance point of view. We had some comfort that they had done this successfully in the required time frame at Labor."

Meanwhile the Federal Office of Management and Budget is encouraging many federal agencies to transition to cloud computing service providers as a means to reduce costs and to speed up IT system deployments. The U.S. government’s CIO Vivek Kundra released the federal cloud computing strategy report which takes a cloud-first approach to computing. According to Federal government estimates, the current Federal IT expenditures of $80 billion per year, could be reduced by approximately $20 billion by outsourcing to cloud computing vendors. The EEOC contract marks the first case where a federal agency has adopted a cloud computing approach for a mission-critical application involving financial management. Previous government contracts for cloud computing have centered around e-mail and web-based collaboration applications.

Related Links:

http://www.cio.com/article/676137/Federal_Agency_Predicts_40_Savings_From_Move_to_Cloud?source=rss_news

Life after the Nokia Microsoft Partnership

By Leanne Westphal

So it is 2011 and the smartphone landscape is shifting again. Moving into the New Year, Google’s Android and iPhone market share numbers are still growing, while Nokia Symbian struggles to hold the lead worldwide. For its part, RIM was fast of out the gate with BlackBerry but has been losing ground lately. Alas Microsoft struggles to gain significance in the market with its introduction of its Windows Phone 7 late in the year. The newly announced Nokia Microsoft partnership will take up to two years to develop as Nokia transitions it array of phones to the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Both the RIM BlackBerry and Microsoft Phone 7 have achieved limited success in attracting application developers. Meanwhile the Apple app store for the iPhone is bulging with300,000 applications, and the choices for Android users has be growing with over 130,000 3rd party apps. RIM’s management may be exploring whether it should make the move to Android as well, to better compete with the Nokia Microsoft partnership. Although RIM is closely watching the latest developments in the marketplace, no one is commenting for now. RIM and Nokia are both strong internationally, so the latest announcement has significance for both companies in their global business. The two year Microsoft transition time line for Nokia means it isn’t too late for the RIM BlackBerry folks to change their strategy, however the latest announcement puts pressure on the company to re-examine its options sooner than later.

Related Link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110211-710610.html

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