Techaisle Blog

Microsoft’s recent announcement regarding their intention to compete with iPads and other Android based devices signals a fast acceptance of tablets becoming popular with individual and business users alike. Microsoft is not new to this market having made their first tablet/slate PC related announcements almost ten years ago when Bill Gates was still at the helm. However, over that time period, Microsoft was not able to convince PC OEMs to develop these new form factors (Fujitsu and Toshiba being the exception). Major US OEMs like HP only made a half hearted attempt to develop these new devices. The reason – Microsoft tried to push the same Windows OS on to different form factors thereby offering no additional incentive to buyers to adopt tablets. Most technology pundits have focused on the fact that Microsoft is late to market with these devices and that their stranglehold on the computing market is at risk because they risk losing consumers and ISVs to alternative operating systems such as iOS and Android. This is true and well discussed so I won’t rehash that topic in this post.

What Microsoft failed to recognize was that the tablet user experience is fundamentally different than a traditional PC. It’s not just about consuming media on a different device but rather how a user interacts with different types of software. When user interaction shifts to a different paradigm – in this case Touch /Multi-touch, the entire user experience changes. That demands a complete re-thinking of user interface design so as to make the interaction efficient and productive. I believe this to be THE key impact of tablets on personal computing. The reason iPads and Androids are succeeding is because the applications running on these devices have been written from the ground up to take this issue into consideration. I believe the growth of touch devices will challenge the long held beliefs of usability but more importantly will force ISVs to think radically about informationinput paradigms that have existed for centuries. Consider a simple task of entering data into a spreadsheet cell. Currently, the norm is to pop up a full keyboard for entering data which takes away screen real estate; this is not optimal particularly on a small device. Similarly, commonly used applications that involve form filling also fail to adequately address input and interaction issues today. For ISVs, their next generation of products will have to find a competitive edge in ease of use which I believe will take on more importance among individuals when buying products and software solutions.

Abhijeet Rane
Techaisle

Microsoft today announced that they were developing a new OS to be deployed on ARM based devices. This is the final acknowledgement that the world has moved past the Windows – Intel controlled computing sphere. Announced initially in June as Windows EC7, this has been on a steady development path leveraging earlier Win CE efforts that have been successfully deployed on ARM devices albeit as an embedded OS. The Company is not giving up on x86 development which will continue to dominate the PC computing market. It is however giving a nod to the fact that newer devices which are expected to drive additional volumes of web usage have different requirements from a hardware and software perspective. The key has been being able to balance battery power and performance requirements – something Intel’s Atom has not done very successfully leading to a huge opportunity for ARM.

What impact does this have on developers? Microsoft’s move to support ARM provides an incentive for developers to port mainstream apps to ARM. But ARM based development is not a new beast for developers to tackle. Those that have jumped into developing apps for Android and/or iOS are already familiar with developing for the ARM platform.  What developers need to focus on are the unique usability requirements related to consumption of apps on these various mobile devices.

Overall, the impact on existing Wintel market should be minimal but it seems that Intel will lose out on newer opportunities to come. You cannot count Intel out completely though for the company is fully capable of competing and “arm”-wrestle its way back into the game.

Abhijeet Rane

A recently finished survey of 2900 small businesses across four countries- US, UK, Brazil and Germany shows that 1 in 5 small businesses own an iPad and 2/3^rd of these iPad owning small businesses will likely continue investing in iPads.

iPad owning small businesses are also more prolific users of social media platforms for both personal and business use. Survey shows that 1/3^rd of iPad owning businesses actively use one or more forms of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter whereas only 1/5^th of non-iPad users use social media.  Besides higher social media usage, these iPad owning businesses also seem to be early adopters of Cloud Computing. Nearly three times as many iPad businesses vs. non-iPad businesses are actively investing in Cloud Computing technologies.

On the question of iPads vs notebooks, not surprisingly, 15% of iPad owners prefer iPads over notebooks. On the flip side, non-iPad owners seem to be die-hard notebook users. Given a choice, 52% of non-iPad owners prefer to use notebooks only. 21% of small businesses consider all three: Notebooks, Netbooks and iPads to be important.  Those that use iPads have very low preference for Netbooks. The research shows that currently there is a clear polarization between iPad and Notebook users.

Besides being a “cool device,” the number one stated reason to purchase an iPad was sales and marketing. When specifically asked the most regular uses of iPad, the survey showed that iPads are being used for internet searches/news, emails, vertical applications and social media interaction.

96% of all small businesses that have an iPad also have a smart phone. In addition to smart phones, it is inevitable that iPads will become the center of SMB Future Workplace.

Tavishi Agrawal
Market Analyst
Techaisle

It is a given that SMB’s Cloud Computing adoption is growing. It is a given that SMB’s SaaS is fast replacing on-premise software. Does it even matter if the growth rate is 20 percent or 25 percent, whether it is US$100 billion market by 2012 or US$125 billion market by 2014? What really matters is how adoption can be accelerated. What really matters is how the right advice is given to SMBs that are adopting SaaS/Cloud Computing.

There are many forecasts in the market. Depending upon which market research firm one follows each has its own stated forecast, definition and defensible methodology.

Market will grow, it has to grow. Industry is driving SMBs towards Cloud and increasingly taking on-premise alternatives off the market. Everyone that is in the IT business is talking about Cloud Computing. There are hardly any alternatives left for SMBs.

So we should really get off the forecast and market sizing train. Instead we should concentrate on factors that will help vendors and channels to accelerate adoption. Now one may argue that all analyst firms have conducted their own surveys to determine the reasons for adoption or non-adoption. However, each of them misses the point of finding those important nuggets that identify a path for vendors and channels, a path that will lead them to Cloud Computing nirvana.

Analysts and analyst firms like us should seek answers to burning questions such as:

1. What applications should vendors focus on?
2. What comes first – back and storage, mission-critical applications, CRM, vertical applications or something else?
3. What should channels be doing in targeting the SMBs?
4. What should be done to convert the non-adopters to adopters?
5. How should SMBs be educated?
6. What is the role of multi-touch devices?
7. What will happen 3 years from now?
8. Which SMBs will regret and which will rejoice after adopting Cloud Computing?
9. How to educate channels?
10. Which market segments are more important than others?

Hence, instead of talking about SaaS/Cloud Computing Spend and growth rates, let us begin a sensible dialog about 10 “thundering” questions about Cloud Computing. You can even check out Techaisle’s Cloud Computing reports here.

Tavishi
Techaisle