If there is a single word to describe today’s worldwide business environment it is “directionless.”  Business and consumer spending are slowing to a crawl until some economic direction (even downward) is identified.  People and corporations alike are simply holding cash until they see clear and safe places to spend and invest. Global indecision. This state of economic ambiguity will hit many parts of the technology business hard.  In the B2B space, customers are spending only on things that are essential, such as replacing broken servers and PCs.  Even then they are restraining spending and eking the last I/O out of those aging boxes (not me – I’m buying a new laptop this month to do my part in reviving the Chinese economy).  B2C sales are slowing even in the hotter-than-Hades mobile market.  With unemployment rising and a looming federal deficit – currently standing at 8% of GDP and with new … Continue reading →

It is now great sport to anticipate what will happen to Sun Microsystems. As of Monday morning their market capitalization was less than their cash on hand, and when debt is factored in, Sun’s market cap was a little north of a 60% premium over cash. This means the stock market thinks Sun, its products, services and brand combined are worth about $800M. Which for Silicon Valley is chump change. Debates on what will happen to Sun (going private, selling off its limbs, auctioning off Schwartz’s ponytail) are less interesting than how they ended up in the relatively sorry state. I’ve opined on Sun’s disastrous buys (StorageTek and MySQL) as well as their misguided belief that being the champion of free software would automagically generate hardware sales. The causes of Sun’s eclipse are many. Their marketing is certainly a suspect, as a recent email attests. Somehow a Sun generated email … Continue reading →

Black and white contrasts make for interesting marketing case studies. I had a chat with Jeremy White, headmaster at CodeWeavers. Jeremy and I met years ago while I was helping push SuSE Linux into the undisputed #2 Linux distro position. Jeremy sold a product that made using the Open Source WINE emulator a livable experience. For the uninitiated, WINE emulates Microsoft Windows OS functions and thus allows Windows applications (Office, Quicken, etc.) to run on Linux. Jeremy had a hit with Crossover Linux because even technically astute Linux desktop users had trouble configuring and managing WINE. Like way too many Open Source solutions, it was a great idea technically well executed but lovable only to über geeks. CodeWeavers made it lovable by all. So when I saw that Jeremy had worked the same magic for Mac users I had to ring him up. From a technology perspective, the markets for … Continue reading →

I recently read an interview with Chunka Mui, a fellow with the interesting job of studying business failure. Mui’s book Billion Dollar Lessons may become the next management “must read”. His basic premise is that execution is irrelevant if your strategy is not good. Indeed he notes quite accurately: If you have a plan that’s fatally flawed, perfect execution can get you into more trouble because you dig yourself in deeper and faster. This explains 99% of the dot-com bust. My analogy to Mui’s point would be that of driving. If you do not know where you are going, stomping on the accelerator peddle just sends you spiraling off a cliff quickly. This is one of the many reasons we focus on marketing strategy at Silicon Strategies. Marketing is hard work and during execution it can be very expensive. It is worth every company’s time (even start-ups) to invest in … Continue reading →