This week, The Economic Times ran an interesting article highlighting how three of the most commercially successful, technical organisations of all time, did in fact ‘borrow’ what was to become their respective USP’s from rival organisations.

The ET suggest that the massive commercial gains of these global giants, is derived from the relatively low cost of research and development they face as the majority of the groundwork, the innovation if you will, had been done for them, they simply imitated very good ideas.

By packaging these ideas in a much more commercially appealing manner, a fancier label, a cooler image, making the product much more acceptable by the sort of mass market that is able to bring in the figures that have made these companies world leaders, they have been able to perfect good ideas.

Think of it in terms of a relay race, with the second to last runner running out of steam just as they pass the baton on to the last. The race is won, and the individual who crosses the finish line is hailed as the hero – no doubt. But does it matter? So long as the end result is the same, do we care?

Google made searching the web better, fact. In doing so it saves me and approximately 740 million more people every day time, and in terms of a consumer product, if you can save people time in 2011, time is quite literally money.

Do I care that some other organisation that I’ve never heard of might have come up with the idea – or at least part of it – first? No. Caring wastes time, and as we have already established I am only interested in activities which do quite the opposite.

Would I care if McDonalds were being sued by the owner of a burger van who claims that it was his idea first to mass produce hamburgers, available within seconds of ordering? No. It’s cheap and quick, any issues outside of that are somebody else’s problem.

So what does this mean for the technical innovator? Quite simply, make good marketers your very best friends, or just don’t bother. Because in this day and age – certainly from a technological point of view – if you don’t have the necessary commercial savvy to take your brilliant idea and effectively package it in a little cardboard box and include a free toy, and make this available to at least a fifth of the worlds population, now. Then you would have been just as well to have never had your eureka moment in the first place, because you can bet your life that all of your considerable effort, and sizable costs, will have been to line the pockets of the Mark Zuckerberg’s, Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s of the future, not your own.

Jonathan

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ninety-percent-of-us-consumers-own-or-want-a-tablet-2295037.html discusses a study which was commissioned by Samsung (no doubt to promote their latest tablet offering) which claims that an astonishing 90% of all US consumers either own or aspire to own a tablet device of some form or another. It does criticise the report for failing to distinguish between those who already do, and those who wish to but if we consider that http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/36463/Tablets-grow-by-3332 reports this week that the figures of ‘tablet’ ownership has grown by an outrageous 3332% over the last 13 weeks and by over 2000% every week since March it doesn’t seem to matter.

So what is all the fuss about?

Is it the size and portability? The speed at which one can access information? The quick boot up compared to our PC’s? The gaming possibilities? Skype? Word processing? Or all of the above?

This blogger would argue that a figure of 3332% growth of interest in such an expensive treat cannot be generated by entertainment or convenience value alone.

Why do we feel the need to upgrade a car which is otherwise functioning fine? Why do we need to get a bigger television? Why do we need 3D when HD was absolutely fine 5 minutes ago?

Can we honestly say it’s because we really want to? Do we really find satisfaction immediately following the exorbitant expense?

Or would it not be better to admit the truth? For all of the fancy advertising and sales pitches that we credit with forcing our hand to delve into our pockets, the simple facts behind growth figures as large as these comes down to the petulant child in all of us screaming that “they have one, why can’t I?”

Jonathan

And here we are, the beginning of the month, half way through the year. So today we shall start as we mean to go on. The ‘IT Crowd’ at Engage PSG Manchester has career opportunities available and we want you to know all about them. So to give you a taster of what we have available, check out the links below and get applying. Don’t forget that if the roles don’t quite tick the boxes for you, give us a call, tell us what you want, and we will see if our clients have something for you.

PHP Developer – Buckinghamshire
Immediate start for a developer with extensive experience using Drupal or Joomla.

Skill Set:
* Object Oriented PHP 5 programming in a LAMP environment
* Drupal and Joomla
* Joomla (or similar experience writing plugins/modules for CMS’s such as Drupal, Xoops, WordPress, MT) experience
* jQuery / MooTools / Prototype experience
* Linux (Preferably RHEL or Centos) / Apache 2 / MySQL 5 / MemCache

Application Group Leader – Cheshire
Senior opportunity for candidates with knowledge of Java development in a mobile environment

Skill Set:
* Ability to lead a team
* Strong knowledge of Java in a mobile environment with at least 5 years experience
* Knowledge of efficient server interaction and networking

IT Project Manager – Cheshire
Management role within a rapidly growing client for those from a software development background

Skill Set:
* A software development background
* Some experience coordinating a team
* The ability and motivation to get things done
* Some experience in a customer facing role

C# Developer – Central London
Online gaming client with an immediate need for an experience developer with TCP/IP knowledge

Skill Set:
* At least 5 years software development experience of which at least 3 years must be in C#
* Solid Microsoft .Net Framework knowledge
* Solid C++ knowledge
* Solid ASP.NET knowledge
* Solid OO design knowledge

Viv

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-buying-nokias-phone-business-for-19-billion-report-2011-6 

Whether the report that Microsoft are to buy Nokia for 19 billion dollars is true or not, there are many questions to be answered as to the logic in doing so. In the first instance, can there be any argument to justify spending such a large sum of money to purchase an organisation which has long been in decline, and currently living in the shadows of its more fashionable competitors in Apple and HTC?

Secondly, what sense can there possibly be in the purchase of such a platform, whilst Microsoft still face a long, long fight ahead to gain the sort of market share for their Windows 7 mobile platform? Would the purchase of Nokia’s mobile unit not simply force Microsoft to develop their mobile operating system with a bias towards Nokia devices? Does doing so not simply restrict the likelihood of achieving the desired growth across devices by alternative manufacturers, who are – with few exceptions – currently favouring the Android OS as the number one alternative to the iPhone?

Does this move simply put Microsoft in a position whereby they are effectively spending 19 billion dollars simply to ensure that their already unsteady ship, is likely to sink along with Nokia. Why take on the challenge of having to rescue two brands, when one will do?

http://news.cnet.com/amazon-kindle-books-outselling-all-print-books/8301-17938_105-20064302-1.html today reports kindle book sales are now outselling print books 105 to every 100. What does this mean for the future of our literary pleasure?

From live performance to gramophone; gramophone to vinyl; vinyl to cassette; cassette to CD; CD to mp3. The natural evolution of format is an issue that music has dealt with for well over 200 years, the ever changing way we access the warbling of our favourite artist seeming to continually stay with the times. Music technology through the ages is as good a benchmark as to the technological level we have been at, as a species throughout history - constantly improving accessibility, portability, quality, and durability. Some may argue that digital musical technology has now taken this evolution to its peak. In addition to perfecting all of the above qualities we look for in our modern music enjoyment, digital technology has ensured something far more important; longevity. The digital world where our music both exists, and does not at the same time, ensures once and for all that nothing can ever be lost, never forgotten. Classical music written hundreds of years ago, yet now stored within our digital infrastructure will sound as clear in another 200 years as it does now, and for that we should be thankful.

One thing that should be mentioned however, is that this incessant driving forward of musical technology has in fact been championed by those responsible for producing it in the first place. Albeit for commercial reasons, the modern artist desires to reach a wider and wider audience, the ability to profit from two separate individuals located at opposite ends of our world sharing the same musical experience at the exact same moment when a song is released on iTunes. The question I would like to ask is; will your average author embrace the same exposure?

Contrary to the gradual evolution that musical technology has experienced, done so in the constant search perfection, we haven’t seen fit to alter the way we access books…well ever. This drastic and very immediate alteration has more of a feeling of forcing books into the digital era, akin to the stubborn grandparent who has refused to text…their argument? “I never needed to before”.

Just as my 1 year old daughter will undoubtedly ask me one day “Daddy, what’s a vinyl?” can we possibly comprehend of a time when our children, or our children’s children will enquire as to “what is a book?”.

Not to be mistaken with the troll living under the bridge in the famous fairy tale The Billy Goats Gruff. That’s a totally different story, although I could understand if the current crop of developers would wish the same fate on these ‘patent trolls’.

There is a new threat in the world of app developers and it will be big business should the cases be followed through.

This has come to light more so with the public becoming aware of MacroSolve in the US. They have sued 10 mobile application development companies. This has been done under the premise that they have breached a patent law concerned with the ‘system and method for data management’.

Further details of this can be found at http://t.co/nCrWb0m

I’m sure developers are bearing this in mind but it appears to be a growing trend. The speed at which apps are being developed and with demand at an all time high, the ‘patent trolls’ will be making hay while the sun shines.

A bridge too far perhaps?