Nokia to quit manufacturing its N-Gage phone

According to Digitoday.fi, Nokia has decided to quit producing the N-Gage phone that even I fell as a victim for. I bought the second generation N-Gage phone to my son and he very soon informed me that there is not many new games coming up. According to Digitoday.com, Nokia might have lost more than 300 million dollars on this adventure. I think it has been a wake-up call for Nokia

Microsoft: Google's Success Was 'Wake-Up Call'

The success of Google served as a "wake-up call" for Microsoft to the financial power of Web advertising, Microsoft's chief technologist said Tuesday. My feeling about this trend is that Ray Ozzie knows what he needs to do and that is a win-win to the competition and the end users and partners get more and more innovative products. The fact with software companies is to get on the bandwagon with the Web 2.0 approach until it is too late.

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Onnistu Suuressa Maailmassa - Opas globaaleille kilpakentille

My book project is going on with full force. You can now see the ad in Talentum bookstore from this link. The contents of the book has to do with globalization and topics around running an European technology company from a globalization perspective.

Talentum describes the book as follows (in Finnish):

Tositapahtumiin perustuva teos, joka auttaa suomalaisia pieniä ja keskisuuria yrityksiä globalisaation haasteissa, kansainvälistymisessä, "maailmanvalloituksen" suunnittelussa sekä käytännön järjestelyissä.

Teos antaa käytännössä testattuja neuvoja yrityksille, jotka haluavat laajentaa reviiriään ulkomaille. Pohjana ovat teknologiayritysten kokemukset, jotka sopivat opiksi yhtä hyvin muillekin globaaleilla kilpakentillä toimiville yrityksille.

Kirja antaa vastauksia siihen, millaiset johtamiskäytännöt, myynti- ja markkinointistrategiat ja toimintamallit edistävät menestymistä kansainvälisillä markkinoilla ja millaiset hankaloittavat sitä.

Kauppatieteiden tohtori Petri I. Salosella on 15 vuoden kokemus suomalaisyritysten kansainvälistymisestä. Salonen on toiminut aktiivisesti usean kansainvälisille markkinoille pyrkivän suomalaisyrityksen neuvonantajana viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana.

Salonen johtaa TELLUS International -yhtiötä, joka toimii Yhdysvalloissa ja auttaa eurooppalaisia yhtiöitä globalisaation hallinnassa ja uusien markkina-alueiden valtaamisessa.

RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2007-2017

DM Review reports that IDTechEx has interviewed key RFID adopters and solution providers in the various applicational RFID markets. This research has been analyzed in a report, giving an unprecedented level of insight into the total RFID industry and what is really happening. Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, summarizes some of the findings. We work within the RFID industry and having discussed with tens of different people, it is obvious that RFID is here to stay and organizations are now starting to invest in this technology.

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Microsoft: Office Live Making Progress - Ray Ozzie to talk up plans for Live on

Microsoft is pushing hard on Office live and it is all part of the Web 2.0 that is taking place. The name of the game is: Adapt to change or get killed in the competition. In my previous blog, I concluded that traditional BI vendors are pressured to get their offering renewed. This is part of the trend going on with every vendor.

Business Objects Unveils Add-Ons For BI Software - Are traditional BI vendors running out of gas?

Business Objects is offering new add-on applications that its channel partners can use to extend Business Objects Crystal Decisions, the midmarket business intelligence software the vendor recently unveiled. "QuickStart Packs," which use technology developed by channel partners, help solution providers tailor the Business Objects products. Having been in the business intelligence market for years and having tracked our industry for almost 20 years now, it is obviuos to me that traditional BI vendors are running low on gas in reinventing themselves. This article is a sign of it.

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The Big IT Vendors Promise Web 2.0 Capabilities

Today's market for Web 2.0-style collaboration and information-sharing tools for businesses is largely up in the air. Startups such as Socialtext for wikis, WordPress for blogs, and NewsGator for RSS get discussed right alongside Microsoft, Google, and IBM. The race of getting the software into Web 2.0 is accelerating and I do not assume this trend to get slower any time soon.

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Windows Mobile is taking over Symbian platform according to Finnish Digitoday

Digitoday.fi reports today that Microsoft has become a true challenger to the Symbian platform. According to the article, the new Microsoft Mobile 6.0 platform includes 22 major features that do not exist in the Symbian platform and the example that is given is Nokia E61 corporate phone. I would agree on this from a US perspective and I am saying this just based on empirical evidence when meeting and viewing the marketplace.

Spotfire: Making Innovative Gains in the BI Game - SaaS, SOA is coming to town for BI

News Analysis: Has the Web 2.0 phenomenon arrived in the enterprise via business intelligence? BI specialist company Spotfire and some industry heavyweights say so. I have been in the BI space since late 80s and I have to say that the way BI is used will have to change and this change is taking place. Saas architectures, SOA is going to change how BI information is melded into everyday applications. The old-fashioned way of build a huge database of old legacy information is going to go away at some point in time. You mark my words on that.

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Motorola exec steps down, joins Dell

Traditional PC makers are in the process of having to change. Things are moving on these different verticals and my bet is that traditional PC makers and mobile technology vendors have to create devices that are truly convergent. Today, it is hard to find devices that are convinient to use, can be carried around and are "always on".

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Office 2007 Doubles Sales Of Office 2003 In Launch Week

Office 2007 reaped twice the amount of U.S. consumer dollars during its launch week than Office 2003, an indication that Microsoft has found the "sweet spot" in pricing for the productivity suite, a research firm said Tuesday. This is good news for Microsoft partners around the world and I am sure new office packages will be built around the software package.



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Wayne's 3GSM Wireless Wire Redux

Hewlett-Packard is a big player in Barcelona, but other companies keep the announcements coming, with smart phones, voice control and more. The 3GSM conference is the place to be and lot's of new devices are coming out from different vendors. Check out.



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Microsoft releases BI tools for Dynamics CRM - this is COOL

February 12, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- ComputerWorld announced today Microsoft Corp. has taken another step to making it easier for customers and partners to customize its business intelligence (BI) software suite. The company on Monday announced the general availability of Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation, a free bundle of customizable source code and documentation. I have been in BI and analytics for almost 20 years and I have to say that this is BIG for Microsoft clients! I love to dig in to find out more about it. Maybe in the upcoming Convergence 2007 conference!

As Software Sales Executive, you can not live without either Techsmith Camtasia or Adobe Captivate

I have been reviewing different video recording tools such as Camtasia from Techsmith and Captivate from Adobe. There are a couple of blogs that discusses of these things... check out Gregs note and also another blog for more information about a comparision. I am turning to use Camtasia myself. Also, there is a site that shows and compares the results of each of these. They are both good but I would recommend Camtasia for everyday use.

India must look beyond cheaper staff, expert says - I completely agree

According to ComputerWorld Indian outsourcers must offer more than low-cost services. According to the article, a model based primarily on the low cost of labor is not going to be sustainable in the term. I fully agree with this and this is where the nation will either succeed or fail. Price inflation has been going on for quite a while and this has made quite a few organizations to revisit their strategy on outsourcing/offshoring.

Mini Cooper drivers get flashed with RFID - new types of applications in the horizon

ComputerWorld reported today that Mini USA customers have their name in lights, thanks to RFID. While some liken the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to Big Brother surveillance or other sinister uses, the manufacturer of the small-but-stylish Mini Cooper car thinks the technology can give its customers a sense of family. It is very exciting times for technology vendors to see that RFID is really taking direction of being part of different types of applications. This application as part of Mini Cooper is cool!!!! Got to get one!

Survey: Failed outsourcing deals blamed on people, not SLAs

February 07, 2007 (Computerworld Australia) -- Successful outsourcing isn't about tight contracts and meeting service-level agreements (SLA). It is strictly a people business and is based on relationships between provider and customer, according to the first global outsourcing survey to be undertaken by KPMG LLC. Having worked with multiple projects in offshore environment, it all comes down to your relationships, your skills and how you manage your projects. There is not a single one method of success and I have also seen that many organizations, regardless of their claimed success, have not measured to the expectations that I have had on them. More about the topic in ComputerWorld

The skinny on RIM's BlackBerry 8800 - is this my replacement?

It features a full QWERTY keyboard and longer battery life. Is this going to replace my BlackBerry 8700c that I have used for almost 2 years. It does lack the 3,5G speeds that the Windows Mobile devices are promising. The new addition that I like is that it includes GPS, which is a sweat deal. Read more about the new BlackBerry from ComputerWorld or visit BlackBerry site.

Cisco Acquires Social Networking Company

Cisco said Friday that it was paying an undisclosed amount to acquire privately held Five Across Inc., an 11-person San Francisco company whose software allows companies to add user-interaction functions and multimedia-sharing capabilities to their Web sites. This shows an example of the force that is taking place in the Web 2.0 time. I assume that this trend will continue going forward.

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Business Objects Makes Baby's First BI - competition is heating up

Business Objects announces its plan to dip into the mid-market with a product line targeted at helping SMBs begin their first BI intitiatives. This move into the mid-market is a sign of these vendors such as BusinessObjects and Cognos that they are really loosing markets to players such as Microsoft. The game of BI is going to be very competive and I think Microsoft is going to be very well positioned in that game. You can read more about this via this link.

Beyond Windows Vista: Microsoft Prepping 'Vienna' For 2009

Microsoft is talking about the next major upgrade "Vienna" of their operating system. Microsoft has not yet release much about what this new operating system will bring on the table. That remains to be seen. I happended to be in Houston, Texas the day when Microsoft released Vista to the retailers. My first view of Vista was in a local CompUSA store.

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NetSuite Channel Chief Leaves - SaaS Software Field is heating up

The lives in the SaaS world is not as simple some might think. Businesss models are chaning and NetSuite is a good example where profit is taken from partners to boost the vendors profitablity. I believe we will see a consolidation of these vendors going forward and Salesforce.com is setting the stage for other vendors to follow. There is going to be new vendors entering the space and old ones exciting that did never have a good story to tell.

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Most lucrative degrees for 2007 grads

Marketing, business administration and engineering students see the biggest increases in average starting offers.

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India the Superpower? Think again

If you read the book by Edward Luce "In Spite of the Gods", you would have to agree with this latest article. The statistics that India has in respect to the amount of people that live under poverty is staggering.

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Mobility is here - vendors need to get active now

Mobility market is taking off and the lastes CES 2007 demonstrated that vendors are really pushing the envelope to get their products to the market. We are now dividing the markets for vendors that want to play the market and the ones that are waiting will loose the game. I would suggest that if you are a mobility player, it is time to get to the market. An article in today PC Magazine explains why.

Dell shakes up its operation - CEO Kevin Rollings to resign

I was not surprised at all when I read that the CEO of Dell has resigned. It has been in the workings for a while and a person like Michael Dell is not going to watch his baby to go into drains. I have not been a Dell client before, but started buying their laptops and servers a couple of years ago. I have to say that their stuff is pretty good and my new 24" inch flat screen monitor arrived yesterday and it looks great.

China is moving to 4G - we are still working with 2.5G in the US

The latest reports from InfoWorld reveals that Shanghai has launched trial of a 4G mobile network that takes them to wireless speed that correspond today's optical fiber. Just to put this into perspective; iPhone is going to work on GPRS technology that is 2,5G with very slow speed. There is something to think about for US providers....