Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Google

Windows 7 Will Be Running on 42% of PCs

Apple, Google, Microsoft, WebOS, WindowsEdward Kiledjian

Gartner Research believes that Microsoft's Windows 7 Operating System will be running on 42% of all PCs by the end of 2011. Supporting this move is the fact that 94% of all new PCs shipped in 2011 had Windows 7 pre-installed.

Another interesting note is that "Gartner's forecast assumes that Windows 7 is likely to be the last version of Microsoft OS that gets deployed to everybody through big corporatewide migration."

For Mac OS fans, Gartner believes 4.5% of new PCs shipped in 2011 will run Apple's operating system and that this will rise to 5.4% by 2015.

And for those wondering about Chrome OS or WebOS as desktop operating systems, Gartner says "Gartner does not expect Chrome OS, Android or webOS to get any significant market share on PCs in the next few years."

Their press release :

Gartner Says Windows 7 Will Be Running on 42 Percent of PCs in Use Worldwide By the End of 2011

Improvements in IT Budgets Are Accelerating Windows 7 Deployments in Enterprise Markets in U.S. and Asia/Pacific

STAMFORD, Conn., August 9, 2011— 

Windows 7 will become the leading operating system (OS) worldwide in the PC installed base, running on 42 percent of PCs in use by the end of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner's latest PC OS forecast shows 94 percent of new PCs will be shipped with Windows 7 in 2011.

"Steady improvements in IT budgets in 2010 and 2011 are helping to accelerate the deployment of Windows 7 in enterprise markets in the U.S. and Asia/Pacific, where Windows 7 migrations started in large volume from 4Q10," said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner. "However, the economic uncertainties in Western Europe, political instability in selected Middle East and Africa (MEA) countries and the economic slowdown in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 will likely lead to slightly late and slow deployment for Windows 7 across those regions."

Gartner's forecast assumes that Windows 7 is likely to be the last version of Microsoft OS that gets deployed to everybody through big corporatewide migration. In the future, many organizations will also use alternative client computing architectures for standard PCs with Windows OS, and move toward virtualization and cloud computing in the next five years.

"By the end of 2011, nearly 635 million new PCs worldwide are expected to be shipped with Windows 7. Many enterprises have been planning their deployment of Windows 7 for the last 12 to 18 months, and are now moving rapidly to Windows 7," Ms. Jump said.

Shipments of Apple iMacs and Mac OS share on new PCs have seen increases in the last 12 months. Mac OS was shipped on 4 percent of new PCs worldwide in 2010 versus 3.3 percent in 2008. Mac OS is forecast to be on 4.5 percent of PCs in 2011, and grow to 5.2 percent of new PCs in 2015. Shipments will grow stronger in mature markets where consumers are buying into the Apple product ecosystem.

"The adoption of Mac PCs and Mac OS is a result of Apple's ability to grow well above the market average in the last 12 to 24 months, thanks to its ease of use from the user interface (UI) point of view and ease of integration with other Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and the existing Apple ecosystem of applications and programs," Ms. Jump said.

The Mac OS share still varies greatly by region, as Apple has much stronger presence in North America and Western Europe. The fastest growth is expected to happen in selected emerging countries, where Apple and Mac OS are growing from a small base.

Linux OS is expected to remain niche over the next five years with its share below 2 percent because of the remaining high costs of application migration from Windows to Linux. In the consumer market, Linux will be run on less than 1 percent of PCs, as Linux's success with mini-notebooks was short-lived and few mini-notebooks are preloaded with it today.

Gartner does not expect Chrome OS, Android or webOS to get any significant market share on PCs in the next few years. Analysts believe that to get any consideration as an alternative for a traditional PC, lighter OSs will first need to get strong positions on emerging client devices such as Web books and media tablets. Even then, it is unlikely that they will have any impact on Microsoft and Windows OS's hold on positions on traditional professional PCs in the time frame of the current forecast. This is because of application compatibility issues and the high proportion of Windows-specific applications within many enterprises.

Gartner estimates that only in 2012 will the market reach the point of crossover between Windows-specific and OS-agnostic applications for enterprises, as 50 percent of the applications will be OS-agnostic. In the consumer space, Gartner believes that the proportion of OS-agnostic applications is already above the Windows-specific applications. This could help Chrome OS and Android make inroads into the consumer space in the next three to five years.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Forecast Analysis: PC OS Market, Worldwide, 2008-2015, 2011 Update" at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1745026.

 

 

 

Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition has been acquired by Google

GoogleEdward Kiledjian

Google has quietly acquired a Pittsburgh company that has technology related to facial recognition. The company, PittPatt, was founded and run by 3 Carnegie Mellon University PhDs. No one really know why Google made the purchase or where/when it will be used but it is safe to assume it will be one more tool in their anti-Facebook crusade.

We will be anxiously waiting to see how this “computer vision technology” will be implemented and deployed while adhering to Google’s mantra “Do no evil”.

Source: PittPatt

Could Apple make a bid for HULU?

Apple, Google, Hulu, Microsoft, Television, YahooEdward Kiledjian

Bloomberg reported [on Thursday] that Apple is considering a bid for video streaming site extraordinaire – HULU. HULU announced that they have retained the services or Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim partners to assist with the potential sale of the company.

About 2 years ago, the interwebs were buzzing about Apple starting a new streaming Television service. Obviously that never got off the ground. Could this be the missing piece to the puzzle?

This new rumor is in addition to the others we have already read about other potential suitors, mainly Yahoo,Google and Microsoft.

 Source: Bloomberg

Review of the free scan to cloud software - ScanDrop

Apple, Evernote, GTD, Google, Google Docs, WindowsEdward Kiledjian


I am a big fan of Evernote and use it to store all of my reference material (as explained in the GTD methodology). One of the key requirements to my online storage strategy is converting paper into PDF and getting it into Evernote as simply and quickly as possible.

A while back I found a free software called ScanDrop which did exactly that. I use it to scan paper directly from my Brother multifunction device and then upload it straight into my Evernote [For Google Docs users, it supports that service too] inbox ready for processing. It supports a whole range of scanners.

Main Window - Click to see full size

 Cloud Service Selection Window

 

Conclusion

Did I mention it's free? Sure there are features missing but it meets 98% of my daily scanning requirements. They do have a Mac version but it costs $9.99 from the Mac AppStore (I still think it's worth it at that price).

I know some may be wondering how I use Evernote as my GTD reference system, I will cover that in a future entry.

The wacky world of Google+ (aka Google Plus)

Facebook, GoogleEdward Kiledjian

I was finally able to get into Google Plus about a week ago and my overall rating is that it is interesting but....

For those of us that played with other ill-fated Google products (such as Buzz), it is refreshing to see that they learned their lessons.

The Interface

 

As you can see, Google has used a clean and easy to understand interface however it will take some getting used to. Dozens of prominent tech bloggers complained that Google Plus is simply a different looking Facebook. Some unpopular Google products attempted to use crazy new interfaces that simply confused customers and ultimately lead to the product tanking. With Plus, Google wanted to the familiar feel of social networking (Facebook, twitter et al) while extending many of its functionalities.

Circles

It is obvious that Google has made privacy and content distribution control a priority. Unlike Facebook, you add your contacts to different Circles (think of these as groups) and then can share content in a very granular way. In my tests, I ended up with these Circles.

 

Adding, removing or checking Circle membership is as easy as dragging contacts in and out of a circle.

When posting a status update (or picture or movie), I decide which circle to share it with: 

 

In this case I added the public Circle (which would share it with the whole world) and the Family Circle (to show you how it would be done). Remember I can add as many circles as I want. This means that you can share your vacation pictures with your family and the business conference ones with your co-workers.

Most people I work with are stressed when colleagues or bosses ask to be friends on Facebook. Do you accept and allow them access to your private life or refuse making the relationship awkward. Sure Facebook offers some controls to work around this but they are not this granular, they are difficult to understand and use. 

Sparqs is cool

I won't be reviewing each of the features of the site but I thought Spars was cool enough to discuss here.


Many have said Google Plus feels like a prettier version of Facebook + Twitter and this fairly accurate. Sparqs leverages Google's +1 feature and creates a brand new recommendation engine. This is one of those features that will either do phenomenally well and help propel Google plus or it will be overlooked and die. It is very cool and should be looked at.

Searching for "Google Plus" in Sparqs returned:

 

Obviously as you use their content rating system (Google +1), the content it will present will become more relevant and customized for you. Ultimatey if enough people start using Google+ and Sparqs, it could replace other sites like Digg or Slashdot. This has the potential to be a real game changer.

 

Conclusion

There are other features like Hangout which is intelligent multi-person video chatting and Photos but the purpose of this entry was to share some general thoughts. Ultimately I did not see anything that would make this a Facebook killer. It is a well designed and thought out social networking site that could be the next big thing if Google can convince enough people to join and add content. The key question is "Is there a killer feature that would win members away from Facebook?". I haven’t seen anything that would be considered a killer must have feature.

They will likely use all of their internet might to lure users to Plus by integrating their various products into it (GMAIL, Picasa, Reader, etc). This won't happen overnight but it is something I am expecting. Remember that the social networking sites don't add any value themselves. The only reason Facebook is so popular is because of the 750 million users adding tones of content contacts want to see. If Google can't get a large number of users to join then this will be an abysmal failure. 

My favorite feature is the granular and easy to use privacy features. Hats off to Google for that.