The Cloud demands smarter devices is one of the dimensions that Steve Balmer introduced when he claimed that Microsoft was - All In - last year at the Washington University. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner mentioned a sweet spot in their ´three screens and a cloud´ vision on the future of productivity during his 2010 WPCDC speech
. An open space between the consumer focused space of the apple iPad and the fat desktop devices on the other end. Actualy he positioned the Kindle on the the far right end of the spectrum, but that is the kindle static ´read only´ interface.A new Game
...It is not about the interface, added value is about making content available, mixability. This is the changing game, new opportunites demanding other skills, new kind of job opportunies, new ways of combining information, crowdsourcing, mashedup apps never thought even possible.
...It is not about technique, added value is about making technology available. Hardware is becomming cloud enabled and web applications are becomming 'client aware' (*). No need to worry about where to put your data, how to format your information considering the different form factors of hardware that will be used now and in the future to access the information.
...It is not about YOUR device, added value is about a seamless experience. Transparant adding information both in digital and analog format. Transparant extracting information or sharing content again. No need to worry about, 'where is MY digital environment to put my information?'. No need to worry about, 'where is my printer where I can send this document to?'. The devices are there and so is the functionality to add or extract your information, where ever you are, when ever you need it. As Larry Ellison (Founder and CEO Oracle) stated a long time ago: 'The network is the computer'. So bring your own device (BYOD) or maybe even you do not need to bring any device. The information you need is simply there.
In an earlier post I mentioned a development of Ricoh. A device near the right end spectrum of Kevin Turner. Rumor is that this device is turning the eReader into an eWriter. I am currious how the layer is added on top of the reading capabilities of the Kindle. Will keep you posted on that.
Pay as you go
If the added value is not in the device itself but in the production and consumption of the information. What does these developments mean for the position of the devices, the pricing of the devices and the business models? Prices will drop dramatically! Devices like an eReader are just a window to the information and will deliver information to the masses. Forrester recommends strategists to diversify their next wave eReader portfolio to secure their ownership of reading experience. Forrester mentioned a drop to a price level of $50 for a stripped down pocket reader.
Apple is speeding up their iPAD release frequency with the iPAD2. The rumor machine about iPAD3 started even before the release date of the iPAD2 was revealed. The second version of the popular leader in the segment is mainly an incremental update of the iPAD. The pricing of the updated version will not change, leading to a dramatically drop of the pricing of the predecessor.
With the comments of Steve Jobs about the price level of the new version, the features of the new version and the rumour that this new version will be released early 2012, put an enormous pressure on the competition. Steve Jobs calls them the copy cats by the way.
It will be hard for the device manufactors to maintain their position and to keep up with the expected experience of added value. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is to 'blend' with the cloud and the information.
(*)Intel has developed a technology for cloud-based web applications to recognise the hardware capabilities from client computers, leading to a better optimised experience for end users.
March 7
Mary-Jo Foley posted a blog on a Microsoft research project: 'A low-tech Microsoft slate for the masses'.
On pricing the researchers estimate a cost of $100 when massmanufactured:
'While there are “no immediate commercialization plans” for the low-tech slate, the researchers estimated that a single unit witht he digital slate and pen could cost about $100 (U.S.) if/when mass-manufactured.'
She concludes the post with: 'I have no idea what Microsoft’s intentions are regarding this device/market, but still thought it worth noting that there’s room — and need — for lots of different kinds of slates and tablets, at lots of different price points. Microsoft seems to still consider the stylus/pen as worth supporting in slate/tablet designs (as do a lot of you readers). I wonder how many of the coming Windows 8 slates will provide pen-input, alongside multi-touch….'
2 comments:
The future of Productivity is Dead. I know this might be a harsh statement, but what if your productivity has reached its maximum potential and instead we need to focus on other values in business (and life)?
All we have done in the last 20 years of office automation is making robots out of people, instead of taking away repetitive tasks we have forced people into easy to automate structured processes. This hasn't made them very happy and slowly we start to realize that people aren't very structured at all, so now the fashion of productivity is unstructured data. It's again an old way of thinking, focused on the structure of non structured information.
It's not about productivity anymore, instead we need to focus on happiness and emotion. The problem is we don't know how (yet) and think along the lines: If I'm more productive, I'm done quicker and have more time for my family. Tell me did this really work? It's like thinking that due to broadband internet we use it less (because we are done quicker).
The one thing we all should be doing is putting the people front and center. It's not about devices, cloud, technology and whatever. We need to focus on the people and get into their emotions to find what makes them happy and sad. We have entered the social age, the technology companies need to adapt and put the people front and center. I don't want to know what I can do with it, but I want to know how I feel when I use it.
Happy people are btw much more productive!
Enjoy reading your articles
-Aad
Thanks Aad
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