[CAnet - news] In the IT industry´s game of chi cken, Gates just blinked

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[Thanks to Dave Macneil for this pointer.  A good opinion piece from
Computing Canada by Tim Warner.  Some excerpts -- BSA]


http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/ComputerCanada/News.asp?id=37883&cid=1
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Microsoft´s huge turnaround last month is recognition that technology shifts
are rapidly eroding the business model the company has relied on for the
last 25 years - a model that assumes a PC on every desk, loaded with
Microsoft Windows and Office.

What´s killed the model is a combination of pervasive high-speed Internet 
connections and new mechanisms for loosely coupling software elements spread
across the Internet. 

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft´s chief technology officer, has written an elegant and
forceful analysis of what Microsoft must now do to compete successfully,
including the embrace of open-source development models. 

The general strategic message is to acknowledge the wisdom of Harvard
Business School´s Clayton Christensen: Be prepared to abandon your core
business in the face of disruptive technologies, even if it means short-term
pain. 

Microsoft´s technological nemesis affects us all. In the first case, the PC
as we know it is dying, and we all face retooling our IT infrastructure.
Second, if you can bolt together software components located anywhere on the
Internet to form an effective application, then the days of monolithic
ERP-type applications are over. Third, we are entering an era of intense 
innovation in computer applications, as the cost of entry for creating and 
distributing software is declining dramatically. 

Many of these innovative applications will spring up apparently out of
nowhere, and reshape the economic landscape. A good example is Flickr, the
photo-sharing application that achieved one million users within 18 months
of its launch. Skype is another. Google Maps is a third.

Affected industries most obviously include telecommunications, retail and
financial services, but considering how integral IT is to innovation in so
many industries, from pharmaceuticals to automotive design, then the scope
of disruption is much higher.



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