Monthly Archives: December 2008

Mobile Money Madness

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Remember that in these times of chaos that there is money to be made by sorting it all out. Just ask Citigroup, AIG, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group, Ford, GM … The mobile industry makes chaos appear orderly by comparison. Like the internet (and other largely unregulated industry) innovation occurs so rapidly in the mobile market that your new handset is obsolete before you make your first call. (Did you know that you could call people using a mobile device!?!?!? I thought they were tiny personal computers – a means for letting Outlook nag me while away from the office.) There are three markets where making order from mobile chaos is proving profitable. These include mobile web application platforms, mobile application testing, and mobile analytics. In other words making apps, testing apps, monetizing apps. Mobile application platforms are application servers with hooks for managing myriads of mobile machines. These servers … Continue reading →

Recession Marketing

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I have been very busy lately. Not only does business at Silicon Strategies Marketing rise in a recession (people sense their strategy is imperfect when they start losing money) but I have been giving a nearly endless series of presentations on marketing technology in troubled times. Part of that presentation appears in an article by the smart folk at SoftwareCEO in two series on recession survival tactics. My contribution to their article “How to recession-proof your software firm, part 2: 18 tips on sales and marketing” relates some of what I say in my presentations — that aligning your marketing efforts to the Market Disciplines of your main customers cut through their newly raised recession filters. The gist of it is that aligning everything you do with the Market Disciplines of your core customers is essential during economic chaos. During recessions, enterprises revert to the original and lasting disciplines that … Continue reading →

Sol Long

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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 →