Memo to Tim Cook: It's time to innovate

As you noticed that Apple stock is plummeting faster than a NASA satellite crashing into the pacific ocean.  Why is that?  As a digital consumer, I would say that Apple has not released any new product.  When I mean "new", I don't mean a rehashing of its existing products like mini-iPad or new iPhone 5.  Apple was great in releasing technology which revolutionized how we consumed digital content. What Apple needs is a new Steve Jobs.  A true visionary with savvy business skills.  Tim Cook is not a visionary but rather a good COO with the title CEO.

The big question to ask is what is the next big thing to invest in.  I would say, Yahoo! looks promising but Marissa Mayer, Yahoo! CEO, seems to be taking patterns that she learned at Google and implementing them in Yahoo!  I don't see innovation.  I am loyal to the Yahoo! brand since it led me through the evolution of the internet.  It, however, has not evolved as a company. Yahoo! reminds me of Oracle in the digital content world.  Like Oracle, Yahoo bought smaller companies however Yahoo doesn't know how to integrate them to provide new and refreshing products.

My money is on Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company.  He understands his management style and the Disney brand and made some brilliant moves. His moves include:

• Acquisition of Pixar - Acquired a popular product and infused into the Disney brand.  He understood that the new generations don't easily gravitate to Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, but to Toy Story characters.  It was a win/win product.
• Acquisition of Marvel Entertainment - Acquired products  that appealed to a certain product and infused into the Disney brand
• Acquisition of Lucas Films - Acquired Star Wars and Indiana Jones and put them in the Disney family

Do you see the pattern?  Bob buys these products on behalf of Disney and uses the Disney brand to make more movies, action figures, theme parks, and sells contracts to McDonald's to sell more Happy Meal toys.

Pure brilliance. Tim Cook is muddling along.  He needs to define what Apple should do.  If he doesn't do it then Apple stocks will continue to plummet. 

2 days @Gartner Symposium

This is my second year at the Gartner Symposium IT/XPo in Orlando, Florida.  After the first two days of the symposium, I believe the mantra of the symposium is the three new pillars of technology which are the glued together by information.  The pillars are:

1. Cloud Computing
2. Mobile Computing
3. Social Computing

At first you think this is just bunch of hype.  What can a bunch of research analysts know about cloud, mobile, or anything else in IT.  Are these Gartner analysts creating trends from pure ignorance?   The answer is,"No"  Companies like Amazon, Google and Apple are creating technologies which are extremely disruptive and are causing problems in a positive way.  Today Gartner mentioned Google and Apple as the innovators.  I believe Amazon should be in that group. Amazon built the EC2  before IBM can spell cloud.
Amazon's model tends rely on developing services which are off-shoots out of its book business.  The Amazon cloud was a game changer and now Amazon's Silk which is a cloud browser will change the way things are done on the mobile space.

I attended couple of mobile sessions today and coule of social media sessions today.  Did I learn anything from these sessions?  The answer is Yes.  Social media has a defined lifespan.  Mobile computing is going to take over and the concept of cloud brokers was introduced.

I personally believe that cloud will reduce costs in the long run and increase throughput. I also believe that mobile will allow users to be more immersed in the internet and social computing is not a IT phenomenon but rather a social one.

The thing that caught my ear was the case study they did about the financial organization and how they built visual tools.  They updated their processes to be more "agile" so that the customer is engaged more in the development process.  I am therefore waiting for Agile computing.  This is the next big thing.  Once these technologies are stablize and drive costs down, businesses will be looking for more agility from their IT since the users will be changing their needs based on their social network.

RDBMS got it right with SQL.

I recently purchased couple of books to learn how to write iPhone/iPad mobiles apps. I then viewed Objective-C on wikipedia to understand the nuances of the programming language.  It's doesn't look too bad.  It is geared more towards C++ which is not a bad approach.  The reason Apple uses Objective-C is because how Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, was involved with the company that invented Objective-C.  After spending numerous years working with Java, J2EE, ColdFusion, JavaScript, studying C++ in college and working with .Net, I feel that the paradigm of object oriented programming is fractured and it needs to be standardized.  Vendors like Oracle, Microsoft and Apple have come up with different compilers and different approaches on how engineers interface with the computer.

This has not be the case with relational databases where Structured Query Language (SQL) is a universal standard and it is quite straight forwards.  Vendors have taken liberty on how stored procedures, triggers and other things have been developed but the underlying SQL is a common standard.

The Object Oriented programming community should push for standardization of basic OO principles like a class, an interface, a public method, a private method, a static method, primitive data types.  By doing that design patterns can be implemented in a standard approach. For instance can anyone tell me how to develop code using Objective-C for the singleton design pattern.

UML will also be standardized an more granular.

gCrack vs iCrack (Satire)

I don't know if you heard but Google and Apple are announcing couple of new products which are aimed specifically at the "partying" group.  Google's version is called gCrack and it will be in Beta release mode.  gCrack will only be given out by existing gCrack users.  The product is a graduate of Google Labs; and is manufactured in south america.  It is then distributed via its new partners in Mexico called gNarcos. According to the Google CEO, this is the best thing since sliced bread and Google is excited about it.  Other neat incentives with respect to gCrack are:

• Can be purchased using Google Shopping
• Track orders from south america to your door step via Google Earth
• Network with other fellow gCrack users on Orkut
• Talk to the farmers and manufacturers of gCrack using Google Mobile devices
• Two years free subscription of Google business apps

Meanwhile in Cupertino, CA, it is rumored that Apple has been working with its partners in developing iCrack.  It is a similiar product to gCrack.  Talking to unnamed sources within Apple, iCrack is far more expensive than gCrack since there is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between iCrack users and Apple on the quality of iCrack.  Apple will back its iCrack product and guarantees that the users will be "high" when they use it.  Unlike gCrack, which does not guarantee the quality, iCrack is five times more expensive than gCrack.  Apple is also going to promise the following things with iCrack:

• Create and track orders on iTunes
• Purchase iCrack using Apple's exclusive iCrack app for its iPad and iPhone
• Meet the iCartel (iCrack manufacturers) on iCrack using FaceTime.  

Interpol is concerned about this development since they claim gCrack and iCrack is nothing more than crack cocaine.  According to the Republicans, these crack products will help the US economy and bring jobs.  The Democrats say that these type of policies will increase the need for standardized health care and pump money in Medicare.  It looks like gCrack and iCrack are here to stay.  The real winner will be Google and Apple shareholders. It should also be noted that both companies see the crack addict will be ultimately the real winner because it will bring prices downs and the quality up.  The next big question is what will Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle do?  Are they going to get into the crack cocaine business?  

Places that I would like to work

As an information technologist, I often ask the question, "Where would be the ideal place for an information technologist to work at?" Here are some of the places I usually end up with (rather than bore you, the readers, with paragraphs of explanations, here are one liners):

1. Amazon : - Can we say EC2. Love to play with it
   
2. Apple : - I would love to work with their innovators. Time to build my CV called iCareer.
   
3. Cisco : - Eventhough I am not a Network specialist. I like their CEO since he seems to have a vision. I could work on the SOA stack.
   
4. Facebook : - They made PHP cool! They have the data and the advertisers. Ingredients for some great business apps. My JavaScript skills are pretty good.
   
5. Google : - I am nervous about their CEO getting pushed out. They have some cool minds. I heard their Product Managers are worse than slave drivers. Unfortunately I don't have a Computer Science degree to apply their.
   
6. IBM : - They have the technology unfortunately with my professional experience I will probably end up working with their consulting services. If I worked there, I would probably say this all the time, "Have you looked at Websphere or the Rational Toolset?"
   
7. Microsoft : - They are known for building UI friendly and scalable solutions for medium sized companies. I am waiting for their "cloud" solution where every local and state governments will deploy their solution. If I worked there then I would be working on the .Cloud stack.
   
8. Oracle : - They have it all. Out of all the companies, they look every intriguing. I would work for them if I didn't travel alot and get to build some enterprise level solutions.
9. RedHat : - They are not as big as Oracle but they look promising. Their acquisitions have been quite good and they are always pushing open source. Guys, you need to get Apache Wave and build a Social Media platform.
   
10. Salesforce : - Give me the cloud. Nothing like working for a guy called Benioff! Seriously though, they look good and promising.
    
11. VCE : - Nothing like working for a company which is based on an agreement by three giants: Cisco, EMC and VMWare.
    
12. VMWare : - Hey Rod (Johnson that is). Need a Java guy!

I didn't include:

1. EMC : - I had a bad taste with their consultants. Documentum is overrated!
2. SAP : - They are big and they are European. My french is rusty but would be interested in a strategic position there.

In all seriousness, they all look good however I don't want to be a consultant with them but rather be a solution architect and be involved in their strategic decision making process. Any takers?! ;-)