Apple’s Influence: The Transformation of Microsoft

There is no doubt that Apple is partly responsible for what Microsoft is today. OS X has continued to inspire version after version of Windows.

Microsoft has always been a PC company, with the majority of their successful products being based on the PC. Apple on the other hand has ushered a range of exciting non-PC based innovations. The success of the iPhone concept, for instance, has forced Microsoft to re-thing their mobile strategy, culminating to the release of the freshly done Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft’s leadership concedes that the market is moving further and further away from the PC. As a big company that has to appease shareholders, Microsoft’s cautious attitude can be forgiven. However they are now forced to innovate and take risks, thanks to Apple.

We wonder: Will Microsoft’s general business attitude change over time in order to try and regain the lead from Apple? Only time will tell. For now we will remain grateful to Apple for their unmistakeable role in Microsoft’s transformation.

High Tech’s Great Threat: The Big Fish Effect

The sad reality about business, and indeed the capitalist system in general is that ultimately one or two guys end up winning – the Big Fish who end up consuming all the smaller fish.

This trend is also beginning to show up in the high-tech industry. Companies like Google have been on a buying spree for god knows how long, consuming small industry players in order to become the absolute monopolistic giant. Google isn’t the only guilty party. Almost everyone is doing it.

With the shareholder value and profits driving high tech companies one can understand the urge to emerge on top of the food chain. The question however is: at what cost?

As innovative start-ups get consumed by the bigger players, it is the consumer that suffers the most. The consumer soon runs out of alternatives and soon the big fish dictate what the consumer should want, and how much he should pay for it.

Fortunately the high-tech industry is driven by innovation. Innovation prefers no size. One day you could be the alpha male in this business and the next day you could be fighting for a mere survival. Yahoo bares testament to this.

While the pressures of the capitalist system are messing with variety of choices and prices, high-tech consumers can rest assured that in IT there is always hope for a better tomorrow.

The Mobile Revolution

The mobile devices are dwarfing the internet. The spotlight is getting further and further away from heavyweights like IBM, Oracle, HP, Microsoft and is cast firmly on mobile players such as Google or Apple and social networks.

For years we accessed everything from our desktops. We ran everything from our desktops. However the mobile devices have taken the fight to the desktop, and are winning. Recently we read of the inevitable shortage of IPv4 IP addresses largely due to the explosion of mobile devices. The signs are there for everyone to see that the mobiles are winning the battle.

Recent studies in the US have indicated that Apple is getting more media coverage than any other high tech company. Google with its Android challenge are following very closely. Apple’s iPad recently became the most widely accepted new high tech device in the world.

With the social media taking the world by storm, and the social media’s suitability to mobile devices, the stage is set for the downfall of the desktop. Maybe the corporate offices will still stock piles of desktop computers but the consumer market is a market on the move, and needs tools that are suitable for mobility.

More and more mobile apps are replacing desktop applications. With the recent explosion of tablets I see conditions set for the burial of the desktop. The revolution is on.

Demystifying the IT Guy

There is this mysterious guy at the workplace who doesn’t talk too much. He just sits there in the dark corner in his tiny untidy cubicle full of CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and broken computer boxes; nobody is ever certain what he does as he sits quietly and taps repeatedly on his keyboard. Maybe he is hacking onto our accounts or downloading some mysterious software to shut down my computer. He freaks me out. Is he a genius or just a plain nerd?  

One thing I can bet on is that whenever I have a problem with my computer he always finds a way to fix it. I swear he is a walking computer manual. “Does he even have a life?” I often wonder. I mean even though he smiles at people all the time I can’t quite get what he says when he is talking. His English sounds like a futuristic 23^rd century Shakespeare fiction novel. So to avoid being confused by him I just let him fiddle my computer until he gets it working again. Thank GOD!

Asking him any question is problematic because his answers summon twice as many further questions. Like when my computer suddenly became slow the other day... He said “some clumsy malware has modified your registry entries and stopped a buggy operating system service that drives the kernel, corrupting data tables on your resident memory. It also hijacked port 2390 and messed up your IP configuration. Your PC needs a basic cleanup, a defrag and a cold boot.” WTF???

Typical IT guy - a tag I’ve had to endure all my working life too. It is a stigma of some sort - I cannot even take the hot new intern out for dinner at Spur because I’m considered a nerd, a geek and a misfit. I’m labelled mysterious, scary and smart - but “antisocial” is the label they like to use the most. This perception is a monkey on the back. However nothing satisfies me more than helping someone and to see the smile I put on their faces. That’s why I love this profession. I make things work. I’m the IT guy.

(If you are an "IT Guy" please share what it feels to be in this profession. If you know of an "IT guy" please share what your perceptrion of him is. Your contribution is welcome)