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  • The Paradox of Consumer Choice
    A few years ago I read a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More by Barry Schwartz. His anecdotes were insightful and pointed to truths about the amount of choice the free market has laid on us as consumers. Of course free markets and consumer choice should be good things, but there are certainly experiences I have had where the overwhelming sense of having too many options made it difficult to actually make a decision. I related to much of what the book was saying, particularly with the experience of picking out a DVD to watch from my massive collection. I recall staring at a wall of DVDs and having the most difficult time deciding what to watch. The decision-making process when faced with so many good choices was simply immobilizing.  
  • The Future of PC and Mobile Processors

    I've spent a lot of time with a number of hardware manufacturers recently, trying to get a glimpse into the next generation of processors and the ways in which they'll impact future gadgets and PCs. In all my meetings, one term has arisen time and again: SOC, or system-on-a-chip.

    Traditionally, chips have been created independently and then coupled together to provide multiple computing features. For example, a manufacturer would create a core processor like an Intel Centrino with a built-in Wi-Fi radio, and then attach that to a systems board, perhaps linking it together with a separate graphics co-processor, in order to deliver enhanced PC graphics. Another might take an ARM core processor and then add on additional features like extended graphics to enhance device functionality.

  • Apple's iPad: Live up the Hype? It Will....
    It was interesting to hear all the chatter after last week's iPad launch. Most reactions I heard from other analysts and media were lukewarm at best...which was what I expected. If you think about it, how can anything live up to the kind of hype leading up to this launch? But there was a lot missed in the media about the event and the product that I hope to share in order to maintain our perspective on not only the iPad but on Apple and their products.  
  • Innovation Abounds - CES 2010 Post Show Analysis

    This year's CES was very interesting. I had felt for the past few years that CES was sorely lacking in the innovation department. But this year it looks like things have changed in the technology industry. Technology companies have realized that to reach the consumer the pace of innovation needs to accelerate, and this year's CES was a start in that direction.  Several things stuck out that I'd like to highlight:  

The Opportunity for Software as a Service

Written by Ben Bajarin Wednesday, 28 October 2009 18:28 Last Updated on Thursday, 29 October 2009 18:19

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With all the media coverage in the past few months about Gmail, Twitter, and now Microsoft's Danger cloud service going down, I'm seeing a renewed sense of skepticism about cloud computing. There are few people I know who doubt that more and more of our software, digital data, and more will move to the cloud. The real question is what will be the relationship between the cloud and the localized client. I won't spend time addressing that issue, but rather highlight some key things I think will make software as a service useful. 

We have to first acknowledge that there are many different ways people use computers and the software they buy. Because of that fundamental observation, I feel that for some consumers software as a service will make absolute sense and for others it will be more useful for them to purchase the product and use it locally.  I feel the more mainstream consumer will find software as a service solution more attractive and useful, while folks in the professional industries will find that localized software fits their needs. 
 
 To illustrate this, I will use Adobe's Photoshop software. I started my career in the technology industry as a web designer and internet software engineer, admittedly not a good one, but I garnered useful technical skills in the process. One of those skills is how to use Photoshop well. Today I no longer do web design, however I do use Photoshop as my preferred editor of photos and to create graphics. However, I do not use it enough to justify the extremely high price point Adobe charges. If Adobe offered me as a consumer the option of using Photoshop online and simply paying hourly or even a monthly fee, I would be more attracted to this option. Even though I rarely use Photoshop, there do come times when it is very important to me.   

A software as a service model makes the most sense within this use case because it allows me to simply pay Adobe or "hire" Photoshop for the time I need to use it. This is also good for Adobe because they can capture revenue from people who will never spend the money to purchase the full Photoshop. However, if you are a professional web designer, photographer, graphic designer, etc., you use Photoshop many many hours of each day. Spending the money to run it locally on hardware that is optimized with memory, disk capacity and CPU performance makes your job and life easier.  

Even within this model, many different kinds of business opportunities may exist. What it really comes down to is that a software as a service model provides a great opportunity for software companies to expand their offerings to more and more consumers by meeting their needs. If a consumer only needs Photoshop for an hour each month there is an a la carte option. If a consumer needs Photoshop for several hours each week perhaps there is a subscription model option. And if a consumer needs Photoshop for several hours each day, they buy the full software to run locally on their optimized hardware for the job.

Software as a service provides a powerful model for software delivery and a broader software reach within market segments. Whether this software is virtualized in the cloud or runs rendered by the browser is yet for the market to decide. All software companies need to begin developing solutions that get beyond a pure thick client strategy to one that embraces the cloud in relevant ways, ultimately expanding their customer base.

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