PC Consolidation: End Of PC Era

Image via CrunchBase

BusinessWeek: HP, Oracle Lead Acquisition Spree Tearing Down Tech Barriers: The race to add businesses hearkens back to the early days of corporate computing, when IBM’s dominant mainframes included home-grown chips, software, storage and networking technology. With the advent of the PC, these technology areas split up into their own industries.

I am glad the writer drew this parallel between the mainframe and the PC, because just like that consolidation symbolized the end of the mainframe era, this current consolidation symbolizes the end of the PC era. The PC is running its final lap right very now.

The smartphone is here. The 2010s belong to the smartphone. The mobile web will engulf all of humanity. Big screen broadband will have to eventually get there, but it will not get there first.

The smartphone is an addition to the ecosystem. The smartphone does not replace the PC, it was not meant to. But there is going to be a device that will reside somewhere between the PC and the smartphone. I don't think the netbook is it, I don't think the tablet is it. But they look like siblings, sure.

The PC might stick around, but not at the center of the universe.

"(C)hips, software, storage and networking" will splinter all over again.

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• IBM CEO: the PC era ended three years ago (asymco.com)
• What we miss about MIS: 5 old-school ideas that weren't so bad (computerworld.com)
• IBM's cloud grab: the next generation of the mainframe monopoly (fosspatents.blogspot.com)
• INNOVATION Embraces the New IBM Wave... in Disaster Recovery and Distributed Data Protection (eon.businesswire.com)
• Samsung to launch smartphone, tablet PC in Japan soon (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• The Changing Value Of Hardware And Software (forbes.com)
• Roundup: IBM's new zEnterprise Mainframe (datacenterknowledge.com)
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• IBM's New Mainframes Take On Dell, HP (forbes.com)
• Fastest Chip Powers New IBM Mainframe (informationweek.com)

Not Your Usual Yoga Guru

I am in talks to do social media for a yoga studio out there in Dumbo. I hope the talks go through because I sure am interested. Dumbo just so happens to be New York City's own little tech hub. There is no Silicon Alley. There is Dumbo.

Looks can be deceiving. I am Indian, so sure, I do know my yoga, but not as much as you might think. But I will learn. More.

Al Wenger Wants To Learn Scala
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches

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Putting My Money On Larry Ellison

Image via Wikipedia

BusinessWeek: HP, Oracle Lead Acquisition Spree Tearing Down Tech Barriers: broken down decades-old barriers between industries ..... HP, Oracle, IBM, Cisco Systems Inc. and Dell Inc., with a collective $100 billion in cash, have said they plan to keep making acquisitions. ..... The buyers are pursuing a vision of cloud computing, which lets customers store their software in massive data centers, rather than in the computer room down the hall. Record- low borrowing costs have helped spur the deals. ..... “Nobody wants to be Californicated by Cisco.” .... Oracle, the world’s second-largest software company, snapped up almost 70 companies in the past five years

I am putting my money on Larry Ellison. The guy, for one, has a track record, and a loud mouth, and a big stick. I don't know if you have been following, but the dude spent the past few years eating up all the small fish in his pond. He bought company, after company, after company. PeopleSoft made news, the rest did not make the same kind of news.

Now the shark is after the big fish. This guy has an attitude about him. He will jump into the water first and learn to swim later. Only, he knows how to swim. But the attitude is he would jump in even if he did not know how to swim.

The underbelly of this whole drama is that Larry Ellison is seriously trying to emulate his best friend, Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs has always integrated hardware and software, and so Larry Ellison was going to do the same thing. Steve Jobs got Apple to surpass Microsoft in market value, and now Larry wants Oracle to surpass Microsoft's market value, never mind that Bill Gates long retired.

HP is in for some tough times. And they just stepped on their own foot by hiring Thepo. That was not a good idea. When I say that was not a good idea, I am talking "strictly business."



This fight could last a few years, and most definitely will be worth watching.

Larry, give me data centers that are the size of servers.

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The Leo Apotheker Is Human Drama
Larry's Antics

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Venture Capital Segmentation

Image by Zach Klein via FlickrChris Dixon's is a good blog to follow if you want to keep abreast developments in the fast churning VC industry. He is an entrepreneur and one of those angels that you will read about a lot, people who are changing the face of the game.

Chris Dixon: The segmentation of the venture industry: Venture capital has only existed in its modern form for about 35 years. ...... “customers” (entrepreneurs) have flocked to more specialized “products.” ...... segmentation by company stage. ..... The segmentation of the venture industry is healthy for startups and innovation at large, even if at the moment it might be uncomfortable and confusing for some of the people involved.

I like his conclusion here. He says, and I agree, that the churn has been healthy and the segmentation has been welcome.

Chris Dixon: If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough: My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. I applied to hundreds of jobs: low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies. I got rejected from every single one..... I had a strange resume .... I probably got rejected by someone once a day last week alone

And I am thinking the guy still has a strange resume.

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More Entrepreneurs Should Blog

OnStartups.com: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started: If you asked me to tell you a list of three of the best decisions in my life, I can certainly tell you that regularly writing is one of them...... Writing on a regular schedule takes a lot of discipline, just like going to the gym or practicing a new martial art. ..... If you keep yourself dedicated to writing on a consistent schedule, those important values will carry over to other facets of life including startups. ..... By putting yourself out there and making yourself open to meeting as many people as possible, serendipity is much more likely to happen. ..... The majority of good things that have happened to me in business can be traced back to my writing

There are more great VC bloggers than there are great entrepreneur bloggers, and I have long wondered why. I have also long felt that situation needs to be rectified.

Social media is so essential. You need to do your own getting the word out. Most of your communication will be small group and perhaps intense. There will be a lot of in group communication. That is why social media is called social media and not mass media.

Updates that can sound bizarre to strangers are necessary staple to intimates.

But then there is also the matter of reaching out to people you might not be able to meet in person. Long form blogging is my favorite social media platform. It allows you to dip into far flung conversations. Meaningful participation becomes possible.

The VCs just have done a better job. I feel like I am half way to becoming a VC myself just from reading the many VC blogs. I have a pretty good feel of the churn that is going on in the VC industry right now.

Even former entrepreneur VCs will tell you, the real action is in creating companies, not in funding them. "All I do is write checks," Fred Wilson once said, which is an understatement, but it is the half truth.

I would go so far as to say every tech entrepreneur ought to blog. None of the top ones do. And I wonder why.

The list is not all that big. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress/Blogger, and FourSquare, and I think you are all set. If you are active on those five platforms I think you are really into social media. And you are reaching out to people you need to be reaching out to.

Regular writing is like working out for the mind. When you blog regularly, you read your news differently. You also read more.

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