Amazon has proven that developers are happy to outsource the data center, and Salesforce has proven that end users and IT organizations are content to consume a Web-based application — but what about all the core functions in between? Enter the providers of business process APIs. Mayfield’s Robin Vasan offers an overview of the emerging area. Read more »
Soon, your phone will know more about your health history and fitness goals than your doctor does. And according RunKeeper founder Jason Jacobs, when this plays out at scale, it will change the dynamic between you, your doctor and the traditional healthcare system. Read more »
Entrepreneurs are often told to figure out what the market wants and to follow their passions. Unfortunately, these can be competing directions. Dave Kashen, founder of Quantum Leading, has his own bit of advice for startup founders — don’t settle for what the market wants if it doesn’t intersect with what you’re passionate about doing. Read more »
What this proposed new standard could do for or to the mobile industry is nothing short of monumental, says Erik Lagerway, cofounder of Hookflash. In the wake of WebRTC, the usual suspects will struggle to find a lifeboat while some faster-movers will rise to the occasion. Read more »
According to David E. Weekly, CEO Oha.na, Silicon Valley is stupid in three important ways — its startups are stupid, its government is stupid, and its investors are stupid. Companies are successful here because business intelligence is distributed, and the ultimate arbiter of correctness is the market. Read more »
People are addicted to their mobile phones and tablets. But what happens when they want to go truly mobile in an automobile? Robert Acker, general manager of Aha by Harman, argues that the challenge is to deliver the mobile apps and services that consumers want in a way that makes safety the top priority. Read more »
Universities are in a great position to deliver a mobile platform to their students, but too many are doing it all wrong (if they’re doing anything at all). Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of education technology company Rafter, looks at the roadblocks and the advantages to embracing mobile technology on campus. Read more »
With its new marketplace for reserved instances, Amazon Web Services has taken another step towards turning cloud computing into a commodity. But Dr. James Mitchell, CEO and founder of the cloud broker-dealer Strategic Blue, thinks AWS needs to implement more commodities market best practices. Read more »
Most developers underestimate how hard it is to be successful in Apple’s App Store. And even if Apple improves things, it’s not going to be enough. Ouriel Ohayon, cofounder of Appsfire, looks at why this problem is so hard to solve. Read more »
As the PaaS market transitions from nascent to mature, a new opportunity is emerging: cloud services curation. Peter Sonsini, general partner at NEA, predicts that cloud services curation will help PaaS players broaden their reach and amplify their strategic impact within the technology landscape. Read more »
Focus groups can only tell you so much. Companies in the mobile business also need to know the right problems to solve, which involves understanding people’s implicit needs and unknown desires. Ellen Isaacs, a user experience designer and ethnographer for PARC, explains the benefits of using ethnography to develop better mobile products. Read more »
The wireless industry has been racing to keep up with consumers’ ever-increasing reliance on mobile technologies. Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future, argues that it’s now time for the government to respond with the same sense of urgency. Read more »
Fjord’s Prashant Agarwal thinks we should forgive the stylus its sins of the past and reconsider how it could complement our tablet experience. And as the tablet markets grows, this is an opportunity for companies to differentiate their products from the iPad and extend the value of touch devices. Read more »
Although mobile apps have become increasingly mainstream, no one has figured out how to successfully monetize them yet. What’s the problem here? Inneractive’s Hillel Fuld says mobile technology has evolved faster than the Web, and it’s time for advertisers to match mobile’s pace. Read more »
In the wake of Amazon’s Kindle Fire announcement today, Unicorn Labs’ co-founder Mark Sigal offers his analysis of Amazon’s strategy and how it compares with other platform players, particularly Apple and Google. Read more »
Tech companies have become increasingly adept at manufacturing desire, but to what end? Behavior designer Jason Hreha argues that the industry needs to seriously consider the impact of its products. Are we helping our users lead better lives, or are we making them compulsive, impatient and distractible? Read more »
Once synonymous with PCs, Hewlett Packard and Dell are now struggling to keep up with the software-driven shift to integrated, differentiated systems. Mark Sigal of Unicorn Labs takes a closer look at how their hardware-centric models have failed them and what the future may hold. Read more »
According to recent research, companies with women on their boards perform better in volatile markets than those with all-male boards. Samantha F. Ravich, co-chair of the National Commission for the Review of R&D Programs in the Intelligence Community, explains why tech companies should take notice. Read more »
When things go well, it doesn’t matter if your company is a good company. But when things go wrong, it can be the difference between life and death. Things always go wrong. Ben Horowitz explains why being a good company is an end in itself. Read more »
In our increasingly BYOD world, employees expect to have open and mobile access to their work and apps. Meanwhile, IT still needs to keep sensitive business data secure. What’s a stressed out CIO to do? Find a BYOD-friendly cloud vendor, says Symantec’s Anthony Kennada. Read more »
Many SaaS startups will eventually be acquired. Unfortunately, most of the acquiring companies don’t use SaaS metrics. As Matt Fates of Ascent Venture Partners explains, if potential acquirers don’t recognize the overall value of a SaaS company, negotiations will be hindered from the start. Read more »
The Apple rumor mill has been abuzz lately with talk of an iPad Mini release. Rags Srinivasan tries to get inside the mind of Apple’s strategy team to divine the impact this device would have on Apple’s bottom line. Read more »
Freemium can only offer the hope that customers will fall in love with your product and be willing to pay for it later. This is a scattershot approach to monetization. Rags Srinivasan argues that it’s time to take a deliberate and more targeted approach. Read more »
If you work at a startup, you will eventually end up organizing an event. Yesterday, LIFFFT co-founder Donald DeSantis shared his advice on how to get your party on the cool kids’ calendars. Today, he explains how to get your network to work for you. Read more »
Can you name America’s largest startup? It’s not Facebook or Amazon. It isn’t even a technology company. This giant startup is the Transportation Security Administration, and its massive scale offers a roadmap for entrepreneurs eager to turn big ideas into sustainable businesses. Read more »
“Write once, run anywhere” (WORA) was hot stuff years ago. Today, a new technology wave is forming, “Deploy once, scale anywhere,” or DOSA. Gaurav Pal of Smartronix, Inc. believes the history of WORA holds clues to how current cloud computing paradigms may evolve. Read more »
Most executives are quick to say that mobile apps are an important part of their sales strategy, but many don’t realize how vital a robust strategy can be. EPiServer’s Bob Egner outlines four key analytics to consider before you go mobile. Read more »
If you run a startup, you’re going to organize a product launch or marketing event at some point. And your budget will probably be less than most high school pizza parties spend. LIFFFT co-founder Donald DeSantis shares his hard-won lessons from throwing a last-minute party. Read more »
Until recently, revenue from unlimited voice and text plans were profit drivers for mobile service providers. Now, the two largest providers, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, are engaging in some serious price signaling. Rags Srinivasan looks at what’s driving this explicit communication. Read more »
Enterprise consumerization is growing through BYOD, but many startups don’t understand how to sell into this market. GoInstant’s CEO Jevon MacDonald looks at the key questions startup founders must ask of themselves in order to break in. Read more »
IT is loosening its chokehold on software purchasing decisions and consumer-like products are finding their way into enterprise software. These changes are generating unprecedented opportunities for software startups. GoInstant’s CEO Jevon MacDonald lists the key questions startups should consider before selling into the enterprise market. Read more »
Apple’s accountants are busy tallying its fiscal 2012 Q3 numbers, including the number of iPads sold and revenue from the iPad product line. Rags Srinivasan examines these two numbers and what they mean for the shelf life of the iPad 2. Read more »
A Facebook social search engine, which is becoming more of a reality every day, would completely change the way we approach search. As an SEO specialist at The Search Agency, I’ve been closely monitoring this paradigm shift away from indexing billions of pages. Read more »
What does the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display mean for Apple? How about another $1 billion in pure profit. Apple’s profit from MacBook lines declined from 2011 to 2012, but all that is about to change with its product refresh. Rags Srinivasan does the math. Read more »
These days, WordPress acts more like a development framework or a PaaS (Platform as a Service), says WooThemes CEO Adii Pienaar. And in the last year, several new services have sprung up to help make WordPress a platform in the truest sense of the word. Read more »
For the last year, the FTC has been investigating whether Google is operating fairly in its search results. Internet law expert Marvin Ammori argues that if the FTC is serious about protecting consumers, it should take an industry-wide look at search engine transparency and labeling. Read more »
GigaOM’s Structure event this week reminds me of the well-documented relationship between economic crises and technological innovation: Hard times bring out the best in entrepreneurs, precipitating a creative destruction that resets the technology infrastructure and transforms business. From my vantage point here in the Silicon Valley, […] Read more »
According to Parse.ly CEO Sachin Kamdar, the problem with shares data is solvable. And as accurate social data becomes increasingly important, the first publisher to fully take advantage of this information will reap massive benefits and potentially reinvent how editorial decisions are made. Read more »
Social is the new SEO. But, as publishers turn to social insights to optimize content and fuel revenue, they run into a big problem. The data that they’re looking at is inaccurate. Parse.ly’s CEO, Sachin Kamdar, explains why publishers need to take social-as-a-strategy seriously. Read more »
Now that businesses have collected and stored all of this data, how are they going to protect it? And most importantly, how are they going to use if safely and legitimately? ISF’s Steve Durbin outlines the five key issues surrounding big data and information security. Read more »
