Here we go again... Flying and Blogging go hand in hand. Really they do for me.
So.. as I sit on a long flight to Vegas it causes my mind to wonder as always.. so here we go.
This adventure will be many firsts for me. First time in Vegas not as an IBM employee. Although, going for Impact 2010 means I have not gotten very far from the platform. I keep thinking of the vision of standing on a platform and you have to step on the train. That last moment when you lift your foot off that back platform and step on the train. Some days I think I am on a new train and frankly sometimes I feel that back foot is firmly planted while I am looking in the train. Second, I am there to promote what I do for a living focused on marketing and partners. I have this idea around Right Sized Marketing. Helping partners add to their execution plans the ability to leverage agency caliber work at the right size for them. Focused on their needs, their business plan, their marketing requirements, and frankly their budget so they get the best they need for their work.
Las Vegas is a place the causes me stress, strain and pleasure.
First memory, picture it Blanche, 1989 and these were the days when Comdex was the show of all shows. In those days, IBM was the leader of the PC Industry. It was windows 3.1 possibly, and OS/2 decking it out. IBM was on the verge of stress and strain and about to go through some hard times.
I was an OS/2 Systems engineer and I got invited to go by one of the customer engineers (CE) from IBM. They were repair men and women and they were the backbone of the show for IBM. IBM had many booths, and many of the hotels hosted special shows such as the multimedia pavilion. This was my first time in Vegas and was a late addition to this team. I believe at the time I was an OS/2 Systems Engineer.
So, I was there to help set up PC's but who knew IBM rented a warehouse and shipped PS/2 cases and varied components and they needed to be assembled in the warehouse to set up the pavilion. I didn't know how to do that so I got kicked out of the warehouse. I had a message when I got back to my hotel room that evening to go to the main show floor the next day. Next day I was told to not touch anything but if there was something to fix I should contact one of the CE's.
Well, in those days PS/2 could be brought up in different graphic resolutions. I couldn't install a hard drive but I knew how to do this. It was the Corel Pedestal and none of the CE's seemed to know how to do this. So, I asked the Corel demonstrator to watch out for the CE's and I changed the resolution. Guess what, I got back to the hotel room and there was a message to go to the multimedia pavilion the next day which was at the Hilton.
I walk into the multimedia pavilion and the backbone was AS/400's and servers and when I asked the executive in charge what I could do, he told me to not touch a thing. So, I had a call from a client rep that she was having a hard time registering one our customers (JM Family aka Toyota distributor for the US) and I wasn't doing anything so I walked over to help her. Guess what, I got back to the hotel room and there was a new message that I should go back to the warehouse the next day. Warehouse was empty, and all I did for the last day was play nurf football. Surprise, I was not invited back to Comdex.
I don't think I returned to Vegas for a while, but after going to NY I have been there for PeopleSoft Customer events, at the Paris Hotel. I have been to a multitude of IBM Software Universities including the first one that I left the first day due to a pipe bursting in New Jersey. IBM's Partner World. IBM's Impact WebSphere / SOA conferences. I also believe I ended up presenting at a Gartner conference.
The point of this is that I have identified Las Vegas with work primarily, except the last time in November of 2009 for my birthday and to see Bette Midler.
Other Random Thoughts...
I am on a Southwest Flight. Is there an airline who can turn around a flight quicker than Southwest. I don't think the plane was at the gate in Lauderdale till a 1/4 till two. They turned the plane and if they were more than 15 minutes late for a 2:15 departure that would be a lot. I watched the process, proves the intelligence of the human animal. F1`irst, no seat assignments and you would think people would ponder where to sit a long time but they didn't. Second, they don't charge for luggage. The overhead compartments were 1/2 full so most people had chosen to check their bags. Now, when I checked my bags at the curb they were backed up there were a 100 bags waiting to be put on the belt. But, it makes you wonder if Spirit will be right. Charge both for carry on and less for checked. People will then check bags and that will speed up the turn at the gate for them and inevitably for traditional airlines.
iPad and multitasking.. and the new iPhone 4G. If you think multitasking is just a whiner's dream for these devices. Think again.. my favorite new application for my iPhone is Time Magazine. They present crisp articles on things I care about. Do this with any applications of its ilk, and you receive a text message on the phone. What happens when you go to reply, you have to restart the application again and launch the article all over again. Minor inconvenience? not if you are using something like the iPad... I assume today the only multi-tasking is Apple applications. I know they say they have that in the next release of the OS for the iPhone / iPad...
Flash for the iPhone... I appreciate Apple's great concern for my benefit and their desire to make sure I can only run open standard based applications. OK, I will stop laughing. Read the Steve Jobs note on their web site. But, please read the whole thing when he said you certainly would not want someone to develop applications that run on flash and are one further step removed from the operating system. Of course not, because then you would not be running on applications that were approved by apple and sold in their own application store. Truthfully, the truly open phone os is the droid today where they don't screen applications and honestly, in mutli-tasks.
In the end, I think the magic of the iPad is the chip Apple developed and Samsung manufactures. If they put that chip in the new iPhone 4G then I think this will revolutionize the cell market again. It will have speed and a battery life unheard of in other cell phones and Apple will be the only phone that will have it. Watch out Motorola and others. A multitasking iPhone with a truly extended battery life will be the only danger to the Android push.. note the slow creep of the droid share and rumors are it will exceed the iPhone.
The other question is... is it too late for MicroSoft to show up to the cell phone table. I am assuming RIM and the BlackBerry are seated to deep in the Enterprise market to lose that share, and frankly will extend that to a small footprint in the consumer market. Does HP buying Palm change this dynamic? and if so does that hurt MicroSoft the most? I am not sure. I think the Palm OS is supposed to be really good but what happened to Steve Job's ultimate goal of an open platform for cell phones. The PC market standardized on a hardware / software combination that in one moment was open and another proprietary but was consistent. This is going to make the market splintered and those that develop applications will have to think about how to develop for 4 / 5 os's simultaneously. This assumes no penetration for Nokia and others that I have not even considered. Which would take you back to the Flash Debate.. or maybe even Java. Would it not be nice to have that extra layer between the phone OS and the application so any mobile application would run on any phone? Certainly that would be the consumer ideal, that would cause ultimate portability of hardware. But, that is not really in the best interest of any of the phone OS / Hardware companies is it?
This adventure will be many firsts for me. First time in Vegas not as an IBM employee. Although, going for Impact 2010 means I have not gotten very far from the platform. I keep thinking of the vision of standing on a platform and you have to step on the train. That last moment when you lift your foot off that back platform and step on the train. Some days I think I am on a new train and frankly sometimes I feel that back foot is firmly planted while I am looking in the train. Second, I am there to promote what I do for a living focused on marketing and partners. I have this idea around Right Sized Marketing. Helping partners add to their execution plans the ability to leverage agency caliber work at the right size for them. Focused on their needs, their business plan, their marketing requirements, and frankly their budget so they get the best they need for their work.
Las Vegas is a place the causes me stress, strain and pleasure.
First memory, picture it Blanche, 1989 and these were the days when Comdex was the show of all shows. In those days, IBM was the leader of the PC Industry. It was windows 3.1 possibly, and OS/2 decking it out. IBM was on the verge of stress and strain and about to go through some hard times.
I was an OS/2 Systems engineer and I got invited to go by one of the customer engineers (CE) from IBM. They were repair men and women and they were the backbone of the show for IBM. IBM had many booths, and many of the hotels hosted special shows such as the multimedia pavilion. This was my first time in Vegas and was a late addition to this team. I believe at the time I was an OS/2 Systems Engineer.
So, I was there to help set up PC's but who knew IBM rented a warehouse and shipped PS/2 cases and varied components and they needed to be assembled in the warehouse to set up the pavilion. I didn't know how to do that so I got kicked out of the warehouse. I had a message when I got back to my hotel room that evening to go to the main show floor the next day. Next day I was told to not touch anything but if there was something to fix I should contact one of the CE's.
Well, in those days PS/2 could be brought up in different graphic resolutions. I couldn't install a hard drive but I knew how to do this. It was the Corel Pedestal and none of the CE's seemed to know how to do this. So, I asked the Corel demonstrator to watch out for the CE's and I changed the resolution. Guess what, I got back to the hotel room and there was a message to go to the multimedia pavilion the next day which was at the Hilton.
I walk into the multimedia pavilion and the backbone was AS/400's and servers and when I asked the executive in charge what I could do, he told me to not touch a thing. So, I had a call from a client rep that she was having a hard time registering one our customers (JM Family aka Toyota distributor for the US) and I wasn't doing anything so I walked over to help her. Guess what, I got back to the hotel room and there was a new message that I should go back to the warehouse the next day. Warehouse was empty, and all I did for the last day was play nurf football. Surprise, I was not invited back to Comdex.
I don't think I returned to Vegas for a while, but after going to NY I have been there for PeopleSoft Customer events, at the Paris Hotel. I have been to a multitude of IBM Software Universities including the first one that I left the first day due to a pipe bursting in New Jersey. IBM's Partner World. IBM's Impact WebSphere / SOA conferences. I also believe I ended up presenting at a Gartner conference.
The point of this is that I have identified Las Vegas with work primarily, except the last time in November of 2009 for my birthday and to see Bette Midler.
Other Random Thoughts...
I am on a Southwest Flight. Is there an airline who can turn around a flight quicker than Southwest. I don't think the plane was at the gate in Lauderdale till a 1/4 till two. They turned the plane and if they were more than 15 minutes late for a 2:15 departure that would be a lot. I watched the process, proves the intelligence of the human animal. F1`irst, no seat assignments and you would think people would ponder where to sit a long time but they didn't. Second, they don't charge for luggage. The overhead compartments were 1/2 full so most people had chosen to check their bags. Now, when I checked my bags at the curb they were backed up there were a 100 bags waiting to be put on the belt. But, it makes you wonder if Spirit will be right. Charge both for carry on and less for checked. People will then check bags and that will speed up the turn at the gate for them and inevitably for traditional airlines.
iPad and multitasking.. and the new iPhone 4G. If you think multitasking is just a whiner's dream for these devices. Think again.. my favorite new application for my iPhone is Time Magazine. They present crisp articles on things I care about. Do this with any applications of its ilk, and you receive a text message on the phone. What happens when you go to reply, you have to restart the application again and launch the article all over again. Minor inconvenience? not if you are using something like the iPad... I assume today the only multi-tasking is Apple applications. I know they say they have that in the next release of the OS for the iPhone / iPad...
Flash for the iPhone... I appreciate Apple's great concern for my benefit and their desire to make sure I can only run open standard based applications. OK, I will stop laughing. Read the Steve Jobs note on their web site. But, please read the whole thing when he said you certainly would not want someone to develop applications that run on flash and are one further step removed from the operating system. Of course not, because then you would not be running on applications that were approved by apple and sold in their own application store. Truthfully, the truly open phone os is the droid today where they don't screen applications and honestly, in mutli-tasks.
In the end, I think the magic of the iPad is the chip Apple developed and Samsung manufactures. If they put that chip in the new iPhone 4G then I think this will revolutionize the cell market again. It will have speed and a battery life unheard of in other cell phones and Apple will be the only phone that will have it. Watch out Motorola and others. A multitasking iPhone with a truly extended battery life will be the only danger to the Android push.. note the slow creep of the droid share and rumors are it will exceed the iPhone.
The other question is... is it too late for MicroSoft to show up to the cell phone table. I am assuming RIM and the BlackBerry are seated to deep in the Enterprise market to lose that share, and frankly will extend that to a small footprint in the consumer market. Does HP buying Palm change this dynamic? and if so does that hurt MicroSoft the most? I am not sure. I think the Palm OS is supposed to be really good but what happened to Steve Job's ultimate goal of an open platform for cell phones. The PC market standardized on a hardware / software combination that in one moment was open and another proprietary but was consistent. This is going to make the market splintered and those that develop applications will have to think about how to develop for 4 / 5 os's simultaneously. This assumes no penetration for Nokia and others that I have not even considered. Which would take you back to the Flash Debate.. or maybe even Java. Would it not be nice to have that extra layer between the phone OS and the application so any mobile application would run on any phone? Certainly that would be the consumer ideal, that would cause ultimate portability of hardware. But, that is not really in the best interest of any of the phone OS / Hardware companies is it?
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