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Startup Lifecycle a’la ABBA (Are We in a Bubble?)

Wow, who would have thought 1970′s supergroup ABBA were such good predictors of the Startup Economy:-)

No kidding… it all started with a tweet by Box Lead Magician Aaaron Levie:

@levie
We must be in a tech bubble given how much ABBA I’m listening to.
24 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

My first though was:

@ZoliErdos
@levie As long as it’s not only Money Money Money :-)
21 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete

Then I had this crazy thought of trying to remember more ABBA titles… it took me about 3 minutes to see ABBA’s wisdom … LOL.. I mean to come up with a full startup lifecycle, purely based on ABBA titles:

  • I Have a Dream
  • Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
  • Take a Chance on Me
  • Money, Money, Money
  • Knowing Me, Knowing You
  • Mamma Mia
  • S.O.S.
  • The Winner Takes It All
  • The Name of the Game
  • So Long

Feel free to add more :-)

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Chatting Cars and Enterprise Software

Today’s big news is Salesforce Teaming up with Toyota to create a private social network where you can befriend your car and it will “tweet” you when it’s thirsty, need a checkup etc..etc..etc – see the details from @Krishnan’s post.  The opportunities are really endless – more on that later.   I have to get something off my chest first.

I admit when Chatter first came out, I did not get it.  Yeah, another activity stream, so what?  I’ve long agreed with Chief Curmudgeon Dennis Howlett that activity streams without business context offer little value in business.  Things started to get interesting when Chatter added the ability to follow documents, opportunities and other business objects.  Aha!  So now we’re getting business context in Chatter!  But why?

 

Continue reading here.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Conspiracy Theory: the Vista-ization of Windows 7 has Started…

I simply don’t get it: Vista is barely out, nobody seems to like it, CIO’s refuse to upgrade, analyst firms tell them to wait, individual users who tried it switch back to XP, others time their new PC purchase so they can still get an XP machine – generally speaking Vista was as poorly received as the ill-fated Windows ME.

Apple is gaining market share, the major computer manufacturers are offering Linux PC’s, the Web OS concept is getting popular, applications are already on the Web – can anyone clearly see the shape of personal computing in 2012? (Yes, I know MS plans for 2010, I’m just adding the customary delay.) Will it still matter what OS we use to get on the Internet? How can Microsoft be so out of touch?

I was right and I was wrong.  Right in the assessment, that Vista’s main competitor was Microsoft’s own solid OS, WinXP – there was simply no reason to upgrade.  Yet as buying new computers with Good Ole Vista became increasingly difficult, many of us got stuck with Vista.  I was wrong in not foreseeing that Vista would turn out to be such a disaster, that millions of Vista victims would end up paying the ransom to get out of the trap and get the version of the OS that actually works: Windows 7.

What followed was two peaceful years when Windows computers simply worked.  Yes, They Just Worked. Almost like a Mac. Smile

Then the unexpected (?) happened…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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KaaS: Kiss as a Service. Really. Really?

If you think the guy above is slurping down a milk-shake, you’re wrong.  Very, very wrong.   He is French kissing teaching his computer and a remote device to French kiss.    Here’s the formula of kissing digitized:

I can see unlimited prospects for a new Cloud-based Kiss as a Service, where you select your Kiss based on profiles.  Perhaps even sample them first.  iTunes will sell them for 99cents, until Amazon comes along with the 69c price:-)

OK, back to Earth. This is not a prank, it’s serious study conducted by researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo.   How long will it take for them to get to Third Base?  (there’s nothing a straw hooked to a PC can’t do…).

But by then.. why bother… who needs feelings anyway?  Let the machines make digital love to each other. :-)

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Tungle: an Acquisition Tweet by Tweet.

Tungle CEO, 6 days ago:

image

Hm… looks like a broken iPhone.  Get a new one… but is getting a new phone really a life changing moment?

@mgingrasMarc Gingras

Time for a new smartphone.#lifechangingmoment

2 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet Reply

For Marc it is.  And I doubt he’ll be using iPhone, now that he is part of RIM.

I first got to know Marc and Tungle 5 years ago, as a selection judge for the Under the Radar Conference, which is where Tungle debuted, so it’s only appropriate that they announce the acquisition exactly five years later, on the very day this years Under the Radar conference is held … in fact  it starts in about an hour, if you’re in the area, you can still catch itSmile

Congratulations to Marc… and let’s hope the excellent Tungle service remains open for other platforms, too. (?).

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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The First Thing Microsoft Wants You to Do After Upgrading to IE9…

… is to upgrade to IE9.  No kidding:

It’s not even April 1st anymore…

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Variations on Hype Quadrants.. no Magic Hype… no, Hype Cycle.. or is it Magic Quadrant?

Gartner introduced their Real (Magic) Quadrant:

gartner real quadrant

Not bad.  But let’s not forget the customers’ prospective. Welcome to the Magik Kvadrant:

magik quadrant

But perhaps most revealing is Phil Fersht’s Painsharing Paradox:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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Time Magazin’s Technology and Person of the Year: the iZuck

List, list…like I’ve said, it’s THAT time of the year.  So let’s consolidate, where we can. Why bother having a separate Technology and Person of the year:

time-ipad-460time-zuckerberg

…when we can have it combined.  Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the iZuck:

IMG_1453

Slim, portable, does not talk backSmile

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve » Zoli Erdos)

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SaaS Growth, Dogfood, and Images :-)

SaaS PlaneFellow Enterprise Irregular Evangelos Simoudis is definitely worth following.  As an active Venture Capitalist he often focuses on his portfolio experience – but through that micro-lense gives us an overview of the market, “The State of SaaS” per se, confirming / contradicting based on real life, real companies what many of us see as trends.

One such essay is Insight as a Service.  It’s about what I called the “hidden business model enabled by SaaS” in 2006: using aggregated data for benchmarking.  Four years later it’s no longer hidden, but a growing business with great future:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)