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  • The Future of PC and Mobile Processors PC Magazine logo

    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:  

  • Apple's Competitive Advantage

    One of the primary things about being an effective technology industry analysis firm is that we have to clearly communicate our perspectives about the technology industry as a whole to our clients. This requires more than just the regurgitation of information as we gather it in the field. It requires explaining more fundamental elements of what is happening and why. It is because of this that we seem to get one question common to many of the companies that we speak with and provide services to. That question is: "Why is Apple doing so well and what can we do to compete?"


    Particularly of interest to many is why Apple appears to be recession-proof while many others in the hardware business had a rough 18 months or so. There are more reasons then I have time to go into in this article as to why Apple appears to be unstoppable, so I will highlight just a few. I am a big picture strategic thinker by nature and I love thinking about and strategizing around competitive advantage and differentiation. That is why I love analyzing Apple, because they play the strategic game extremely well, particularly when it comes to developing strategies to defend their competitive advantage. There are three key areas that stick out to me as particularly defensible for Apple. 

Adobe's Publishing Revolution

Written by Tim Bajarin Monday, 14 December 2009 16:12

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Adobe is one of the most important companies in this industry. The nearly ubiquitous Flash player has put it on most users' radar, but the Adobe's real mark is the role it has played pushing forward desktop and Web-based publishing.

Adobe was founded by John Warnock and Chuck Geshke, two former Xerox PARC employees who developed Postscript, a printer language that helped launch the publishing revolution in 1985. It was Warnock who convinced Steve Jobs to back the language in the first Apple laser printer. This, coupled with Aldus's Pagemaker software helped Apple establish the de facto Mac desktop publishing standard, which vaunted the company to national attention in the business world.

Today, Adobe continues to innovate in the publishing space. The company has introduced products like Acrobat, Flash, and AIR and continues to create great tools for anyone publishing documents and media in one form or another. But it's Adobe's recent announcement of its InDesign CS4 tool that could perhaps be its most important product when it comes to the future of publishing.

Over the last few weeks, I have written a couple of columns predicting that a new generation of smartphones and mini-tablets will eventually become mobile platforms for multimedia e-books. I also suggested that the days of the standalone e-book reader may be numbered, due to the potential role these emerging devices might play as vehicles for delivering next generation multimedia content and e-books.

But if these devices are going to emerge and become successful, we will need new publishing tools and standards. These will help publishers create rich content combining text, images, voice, and video, which can be delivered to a wide variety of devices, rather than being limited to a proprietary system like the Amazon Kindle or Apple iPhone. In the past 90 days, two proprietary formats have died (BBeB, .PDB) and two controlled DRM systems bit the dust (MarlinDRM and eReader DRM). More importantly, two closed systems have opened based on ePub and Adobe's eBook platform (Sony and Barnes and Noble).

Using ePub as the base standard and working with its own e-book platform, Adobe has given content publishers a very rich development toolkit with InDesign CS4, letting the industry create multimedia content for inclusion in all types of e-content and e-books. This is an extremely important development for the publishing industry, giving publishers a way to create rich content that could be used on various OS-based PCs, smartphones, and eventually mini-tablets.—Next: Smartphones and Mini-Tablet Platforms >

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