Tag Archives: Campbell (California)

About 831 days ago Hardware

Apple iPad 2 Could Be a Business Stunner

our beautiful site

Like many young companies today, Telltale Games — a development studio that creates and digitally distributes games for PCs, consoles and mobile devices — is a frequent user of new technology. And tablets are no exception. Specifically, the Apple iPad is a popular tool at the San Rafael, Calif.-based company, which employs roughly 80 people. “My iPad has sort of become hardwired to me in a way my laptop never was,” says senior marketing vice president Steve Allison. “The form factor makes it more like grabbing a magazine than lugging an 8-pound laptop around the office, at home or on a trip — and that changes everything about my usage pattern.” Allison says the iPad is a convenient way to catch up on email with multiple accounts, plus he can easily stay on top of sales information in real-time via the Safari browser. But for everything the iPad offers, Allison concedes it’s missing a few key features.  “I’d love to see a front-facing camera for video chats and rear facing cameras with a flash and built-in photo apps.” “I’d love to be able to use the same mobile phone number across my iPad and iPhone, if that was possible,” Allison adds. Turns out, Allison may get his wish: a successor to the iPad may be more suited for work. Speculation about the iPad 2According to consumer analyst Rob Enderle with the Enderle Group, the next iPad will use a multi-core processor. That means the tablet will likely run faster and handle multi-tasking chores — running a back-up while you download e-mail, for example. “This is important for business as one core could be dedicated to, say handling virus checking, which will become more important for tablets. The existing iPad bogs down, it doesn’t handle multitasking very well,” he says. Enderle says there will likely be a design change with the iPad 2 to match the iPhone 4, which uses a more flat design and holds up better to abuse.  “The iPad 2 will likely have a higher-resolution ‘Retina’ display, more storage, such as 128GB of memory, a camera or two and a thinner and lighter design,” predicts Laura DiDio, a principal at Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC), a research and consulting firm based in the suburban Boston area. On doubling the existing iPad’s flash memory, DiDio says “when it comes to business, you can’t have too much storage.” That means more memory for rich documents such as slideshows, massive high-resolution photos, and a complete collection of Word files. On the front- and rear-facing cameras, DiDio says there are many businesses that can benefit from this added functionality. “Construction managers and insurance adjusters, for example, could take pictures, add notes and send them on via email, from wherever they are.” Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies in Campbell, Calif., a tech consultancy, confirms a front-facing camera would be handy for video conferencing. “It would be great to ‘FaceTime’ with colleagues [using the Apple app for video chats on the iPhone 4] or clients — and on a Retina display for better resolution.” Near-Field Communication? Bajarin also says Near-Field Communications, or NFC, might be integrated into the second-generation iPad. On the short-range wireless technology, Bajarin says a small chip and software could let the iPad be used for mobile payments “when waved across a terminal, not unlike a car fast-tracking through a toll booth with an on-dash transponder.” “NFC integration is the one thing you could argue could have significant impact on SMBs,” adds Bajarin. “iPads in business are really in its early stages, [as] companies [are] trying to figure out how to use them — but there is strong interest, indeed.” For business, the timing is just about right for an iPad follow-up. DiDio says the current iPad model is making inroads at work. An ITIC survey found roughly 86 percent of respondents say they use the iPad for both work and play. One reason, she says, is due to a deal with Unisys in October to service iPads, which covers businesses from a support angle. Will the iPad 2 become as popular as the original? We’ll all have to wait and see.  

About 1141 days ago Tools on Managing Technology

Five Ways the iPad Can Help Business

our beautiful site

There was a hush in the room when Apple CEO Steve Jobs (finally) took the wraps off the long-rumored Apple iPad in late January. Perhaps it was because the audience — populated primarily by journalists and analysts — realized this portable tablet would blur the lines between work and play, much like the iconic iPhone that came before it. Now the iPad is available, and many are wondering if this digital device is truly suitable for small to mid-sized business — or even a boon for it. The basics The iPad (from $499 for 16GB) is a thin, 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet, ideal for reading electronic books and digital newspapers, surfing the Web, reading e-mail, flicking through photos, watching videos, and playing games — all via your fingertips instead of with a keyboard and mouse. Sure, other manufacturers have launched WiFi-enabled tablets in the past — aimed primarily at businesses — but more often than not have proven bulky, slow, and limited in software. The iPad, on the other hand, is a svelte 1.5 pounds, powered by a 1GHz processor and out of the box works with most of the 150,000 plus applications (“apps”) available at Apple’s popular App Store (part of iTunes). Built for business A recent business survey conducted by Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) found 42 percent of participants planned on purchasing an iPad within the first six to nine months. Only 14 percent said “no,” leaving the remaining 44 percent as “possibly” or “undecided.” “Interestingly, the line that divides home life and corporate life has blurred considerably over the past few years,” says Laura DiDio, a principal at ITIC, a research and consulting firm based in the suburban Boston area. When asked how they’ll use the iPad, 64 percent of respondents said they’d use the iPad for business, 31 percent for personal use, and 86 percent for both. “Ten or 15 years ago you can be reasonably certain your IT department would issue you a desktop device that was more state of the art than what you had at home,” says DiDio. “Now, consumers get more state of the art, feature-rich devices than what’s issued by the company, and in many cases they can use them for work, too.” Top 5 reasons iPad is good for business DiDio says there are a number of reasons why the iPad is good for business. Here are the top five reasons to consider an iPad for business: Price (under $500) Power (better than netbooks) Portability (1.5 pounds, 10 hour battery) Usability (home and business use, which fits today’s telecommuting trend) Functionality (150,000 apps and counting) “With a list price that begins at $499, Apple has broken price barrier, making it appealing to consumers and businesses alike,” explains DiDio. “Plus, the iPad has the performance and graphics capabilities not found in most netbooks.” Another advantage: many corporate workers are “road warriors” these days, adds DiDio, “from the smallest businesses all the way up to enterprise.” The iPad’s svelte 1.5-pound frame and 10-hour battery make it ideal for travelers and telecommuters alike. “Many today juggle home and business life simultaneously, so while the iPad is great to keep the kids entertained in the backseat of the car, mom or dad can then edit a sales report when they reach their destination,” says DiDio. A wide range of applications also make the iPad very appealing to small and mid-sized businesses. Not everyone agrees Tim Bajarin, principal strategist at the Campbell, Calif.-based Creative Strategies research firm, says he recognizes Apple has added some productivity software to the overall iPad model, such as the iWorks programs, but still believes the iPad is more of a consumer device than a business tool. “You saw Jobs demonstrate the iPad reclining in a chair because the iPad is optimized for a ‘lean back’ experience rather than a ‘lean forward’ one,” explains Bajarin. “This is fine for browsing the Web, reading a book, or watching video, but business is more of a learn forward experience — such as writing long e-mails and reports, or working on spreadsheets and presentations.” Bajarin says the success of the iPad in the workplace will also depend on the type of job at hand. “Those who need bigger screen real estate will stick with a PC monitor, such as those in graphic arts,” says Bajarin, “but vertical markets — such as hospitals, transportation, police and fire, and small medical clinics — might find this tablet of use, where ultra portability is important.”

About 1141 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Five Ways the iPad Can Help Business

our beautiful site

There was a hush in the room when Apple CEO Steve Jobs (finally) took the wraps off the long-rumored Apple iPad in late January. Perhaps it was because the audience — populated primarily by journalists and analysts — realized this portable tablet would blur the lines between work and play, much like the iconic iPhone that came before it. Now the iPad is available, and many are wondering if this digital device is truly suitable for small to mid-sized business — or even a boon for it. The basics The iPad (from $499 for 16GB) is a thin, 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet, ideal for reading electronic books and digital newspapers, surfing the Web, reading e-mail, flicking through photos, watching videos, and playing games — all via your fingertips instead of with a keyboard and mouse. Sure, other manufacturers have launched WiFi-enabled tablets in the past — aimed primarily at businesses — but more often than not have proven bulky, slow, and limited in software. The iPad, on the other hand, is a svelte 1.5 pounds, powered by a 1GHz processor and out of the box works with most of the 150,000 plus applications (“apps”) available at Apple’s popular App Store (part of iTunes). Built for business A recent business survey conducted by Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) found 42 percent of participants planned on purchasing an iPad within the first six to nine months. Only 14 percent said “no,” leaving the remaining 44 percent as “possibly” or “undecided.” “Interestingly, the line that divides home life and corporate life has blurred considerably over the past few years,” says Laura DiDio, a principal at ITIC, a research and consulting firm based in the suburban Boston area. When asked how they’ll use the iPad, 64 percent of respondents said they’d use the iPad for business, 31 percent for personal use, and 86 percent for both. “Ten or 15 years ago you can be reasonably certain your IT department would issue you a desktop device that was more state of the art than what you had at home,” says DiDio. “Now, consumers get more state of the art, feature-rich devices than what’s issued by the company, and in many cases they can use them for work, too.” Top 5 reasons iPad is good for business DiDio says there are a number of reasons why the iPad is good for business. Here are the top five reasons to consider an iPad for business: Price (under $500) Power (better than netbooks) Portability (1.5 pounds, 10 hour battery) Usability (home and business use, which fits today’s telecommuting trend) Functionality (150,000 apps and counting) “With a list price that begins at $499, Apple has broken price barrier, making it appealing to consumers and businesses alike,” explains DiDio. “Plus, the iPad has the performance and graphics capabilities not found in most netbooks.” Another advantage: many corporate workers are “road warriors” these days, adds DiDio, “from the smallest businesses all the way up to enterprise.” The iPad’s svelte 1.5-pound frame and 10-hour battery make it ideal for travelers and telecommuters alike. “Many today juggle home and business life simultaneously, so while the iPad is great to keep the kids entertained in the backseat of the car, mom or dad can then edit a sales report when they reach their destination,” says DiDio. A wide range of applications also make the iPad very appealing to small and mid-sized businesses. Not everyone agrees Tim Bajarin, principal strategist at the Campbell, Calif.-based Creative Strategies research firm, says he recognizes Apple has added some productivity software to the overall iPad model, such as the iWorks programs, but still believes the iPad is more of a consumer device than a business tool. “You saw Jobs demonstrate the iPad reclining in a chair because the iPad is optimized for a ‘lean back’ experience rather than a ‘lean forward’ one,” explains Bajarin. “This is fine for browsing the Web, reading a book, or watching video, but business is more of a learn forward experience — such as writing long e-mails and reports, or working on spreadsheets and presentations.” Bajarin says the success of the iPad in the workplace will also depend on the type of job at hand. “Those who need bigger screen real estate will stick with a PC monitor, such as those in graphic arts,” says Bajarin, “but vertical markets — such as hospitals, transportation, police and fire, and small medical clinics — might find this tablet of use, where ultra portability is important.”

About 2300 days ago Business Software

Do You Need A Standard ‘Build’ for All Your Business Computers?

our beautiful site

The financial rationale for many small and mid-size businesses to standardize on software for the company’s computing platform is convincing: a standard build can mitigate security risks while drastically reducing the amount of time your technology staff needs to spend loading applications on each PC and laptop used by employees. These days, top-tier applications of every stripe are optimized to be delivered remotely, via subscription services or Web applications. This means companies that centrally manage resources are no longer limited in the quality of software tools offered. But, at the same time, small businesses need to consider certain situations when giving users autonomy over their desktops remains justifiable – particularly when an employee’s job duties include unique requirements. A standard build can lower costs For a small business, standardizing the computing platform “is not so much an advantage as it is a necessity,” says Kevin Kelly, the technology manager at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a small business based in Woodacre, Calif. Small businesses with limited technology budgets cannot afford to have administrators spending hours removing applications or scrubbing hard drives of viruses and spyware, Kelly says. He makes sure his company’s 50 users are always up-to-date and productive by refreshing their desktop software overnight and scanning for wayward applications. Businesses involved in managing financial and personal data have additional security and privacy concerns that justify centrally storing and managing applications. The potential for losing laptops with sensitive personal information and the risks from users who inadvertently create security holes justify the central administration of software. Centralized management also prevents users from installing the many popular applications for communicating, playing media files or sharing files online that decrease productivity and increase security risks. The software-as-service model A client-server platform for delivering applications has traditionally been too costly for many small businesses. A preferable and more affordable model that is attracting more interest from small businesses is delivering applications over the Internet, according to Tim Bajarin, the principal analyst at Creative Strategies, a consulting firm based in Campbell, Calif. Small companies sign up for services known alternatively known as “on demand applications,” “software as a service,” or “Web-hosted applications” that provide all of the applications necessary for sales, customer relationship management or human resources organizations. Bajarin says companies such as Salesforce.com, SmartOnline, and Citrix can securely deliver applications while lowering the cost of technology. On-demand applications can often be installed without changing the current platform and are suitable for organizations without a dedicated technology staff. According to research company AMI-Partners, small- and medium-sized businesses will increase their spending on online customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software by 17 percent in 2007 over the prior year. When it’s okay to deviate from the standard In certain cases, it’s okay to stray from the standard build model. Small businesses with media departments that require specific applications, such as video or graphics processing, or individuals who manipulate sophisticated financial models or engineering documents will likely need computers that deviate from a standard build. Standardizing the desktop build may not be suitable for very small businesses (fewer than 10 employees) that do not have an administrator to enforce standardization or cannot afford to invest the time needed to establish a relationship with a remote applications provider. Fortunately for businesses that have departments with varied requirements, centralizing administration does not have to be an all or nothing proposition. Standard builds can be customized to business departments while other workgroups can have their own configurations. Technology manager Kelly says Microsoft’s new Vista operating system simplifies the task of managing the desktops of multiple workgroups while allowing a company to grant permission to install applications on an individual basis.

About 2300 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Taskus Interruptus

our beautiful site

Hey, stupid. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking to you. You might think that your e-mail, BlackBerry, smart phone, always-on Web connection, and ever-growing array of computer applications make you smarter and more efficient. But you’re wrong. Instead, all those shiny new tools make it impossible to concentrate on any one thing for more than a few minutes. And that is why you have become dumber and less effective. Or so suggests a stream of recent studies. Researchers at the University of California, for example, studied a group of professionals and found that participants made it only an average of 11 minutes before some distraction yanked them off the task, after which it took 25 minutes to get back on it. Physician and attention deficit disorder expert Edward Hallowell, in his recent book CrazyBusy, compares multitasking to playing tennis with two balls, and says that constantly jumping between tasks not only leads to subpar performance, it also gives workers some of the symptoms of ADD. A psychologist at London’s King’s College suggests that constant exposure to e-mail and other multitasking-friendly technology temporarily lowers IQ by 10 points–or about as much as skipping a night’s sleep and more than twice as much as smoking marijuana. And Basex Research, an IT market-research firm, surveyed office workers to figure the business bottom line to the growing distraction disaster. The answer: Companies lose an average of 2.1 hours per day of employee productivity because of multitasking and related interruptions, adding up to $588 billion in lost productivity to U.S. businesses. These conclusions would explain a steady drop in the productivity of U.S. workers. The problem: Worker productivity, as measured by the government, not only has been on the rise since the early ’90s, when all this technology started to come into play, but also has accelerated during the explosion of the multitasking phenomenon over the past five years. So what gives? Does multitasking really impair our ability to get our jobs done? The answer for most workers is, I think, no. But it’s not because multitasking doesn’t impair your ability to perform tasks. It does. It’s because we’re now in a complex, fast-response world in which getting a complete task done in the least amount of time is no longer the priority. Instead, today’s top priority is to immediately address whatever fraction of a vast, malleable range of tasks has become most critical–a just-in-time, networked workstyle. Focusing on one task to the exclusion of others isn’t even an option anymore. When experts examine the detrimental effects of multitasking on productivity, they’re asking the wrong question. We don’t need to wonder about the ways in which multitasking and interruption impair our ability to speed through a task. We need to appreciate the ways in which multitasking and interruption have become essential to meeting the increasingly nonlinear demands of our jobs. That means it’s essential not only to put up with but also to embrace multitasking. Fifteen years ago, it was almost impossible to get a fast response in midevening, or even midday, from your head of product development or the CEO of a key supplier. But today, with projects and products being zipped around the globe, chances are you know exactly how to get someone’s attention at a moment’s notice. And the ability to do so has a direct impact on the bottom line, says Michael McCloskey, CEO of FrontRange Solutions, a customer relationship management software and services provider in Dublin, California. “If I’m in a price negotiation with a big customer, and they’ve got their legal and purchasing people right there, and they want an answer to a question, I better be able to get that answer,” he says. “Because I may not be able to get those people in the same room talking about my product again anytime soon.” McCloskey admits that he often has to interrupt people during important tasks to do so. But he has no second thoughts. “Ninety percent of the time,” he says, “it’s worth it.” Meanwhile, businesses have long been moving away from the sort of stovepipe structure that allowed employees to focus on meeting the demands of a single boss or worry only about a small group of employees or customers. Today the dotted-line relationships form a dense web that extends out to customers, suppliers, and partners. In other words, forget about closing the door and crunching on that one presentation. You’ve got 20 other people breathing at you just as hard, and each one wants to know that you’re making progress. “The way we look at getting the job done is changing,” says Martin Frid-Nielsen, CEO of Soonr, a Campbell, California, company offering a service that connects cell phones to PC applications. “It’s about how in touch you are and how you’re engaging many other people.” That’s one reason corporate IT professionals typically take on an average of 12 projects simultaneously, even though doing so increases the time involved in finishing all of them compared with doing them one at a time. Throw in the fact that business priorities and goals constantly change in our world of shortening product cycles, ever more fickle markets, and rapid innovation, and it just seems almost, well, dumb to suggest that employees ought to be executing tasks one at a time from beginning to end while putting all the other tasks on hold for days or weeks. Studies about the impact of multitasking and interruptions tend to ignore these factors. But though the studies may not be able to gauge the effect of multitasking in a relevant way, you’ve got two terrific measuring devices that allow you to do so in your own company: your gut and your balance sheet. If your people seem to you to be smart, hard-working, and effective amid all the interruptions, then they probably are–and they’ll naturally gravitate toward the tools that help them get the job done, interruptions and all. And if businesses are making good money and growing as multitasking takes hold, then what problem are we trying to solve? Michael Santo, founder and CEO of human resources consulting firm RembrandtAdvantage in Palm Springs, California, notes that a worker in the insurance industry contributed on average about $85,000 of revenue to his or her company in 1991; today it’s $250,000. That’s not in spite of having developed the technology-enabled habit of jumping back and forth between dozens of open cases during the day, he says. It’s because of it. Yes, multitasking can be stressful, but that’s a poor way to gauge its value. The fact is, in today’s business environment not being able to multitask would probably be highly stressful. Just imagine how you’d feel locked in a room focusing on a single task without computer, phone, or e-mail access, trying not to think about how many customers and colleagues were trying to reach you with urgent questions. And by the way, not only is it possible to play tennis with two balls, many players make a point of training that way–as do some soccer, basketball, and baseball players. It’s a good way to improve reactions, to learn to cover more ground with less effort, and to develop a faster-paced game. Sound familiar?

About 2576 days ago Computer Security

Adobe was Their Partner, Then Everything Changed

For 10 years, Karl De Abrew and Sam Chandler had a happy, productive relationship with Adobe, developing plug-ins to enhance Acrobat PDF software and consulting with the software giant, based in San Jose, California, on developer support. And Adobe seemed just as happy with ARTS PDF, De Abrew and Chandler’s Melbourne, Australia-based company; it even sponsored ARTS PDF’s online community of PDF users, Planet PDF. By 2003, ARTS PDF had 30 full-time employees and half of its $3 million in annual revenue came from Adobe-related projects. But the two partners were plotting a move that once would have seemed insane–severing the relationship and instead competing with Adobe with a PDF product of their own. The problem was the way Adobe had begun treating third-party developers like ARTS PDF. Since the release of Adobe Acrobat in 1993, such developers had been key to Adobe’s strategy. The company created the application with an open standard, giving any developer access to the software’s specifications and a free license to create applications to extend its capabilities. Hundreds of third-party developers had based their businesses on Acrobat. ARTS PDF, for example, scored a big hit with a plug-in that, among other things, allows users to activate Web links in PDF documents, and sells the software on its own website, PDF Store. But Adobe’s CEO, Bruce Chizen, who took over from co-founder John Warnock in 2000, had grown wary of working with outsiders. Warnock used to refer to the hundreds of third-party developers as Adobe’s “ecosystem.” Under Chizen’s leadership, however, the company began reengineering the third-party plug-ins itself, incorporating them into new and increasingly complicated versions of Acrobat. That sparked concern among developers. If consumers could buy Acrobat software loaded with the latest extras, they would no longer need plug-ins. De Abrew and Chandler were as tuned into the PDF community as anyone, and they knew what was coming: Their plug-in business was disappearing before their eyes. At the same time, they sensed that there was a market for an Acrobat alternative. People were changing the way they used PDF applications. Instead of using the software simply to create and read files, more businesses were embracing the PDF format as a collaboration tool to let workers share digital documents, inserting revisions and comments along the way. Acrobat can do all those things, but the cost can sting when a company needs to push out the software to large groups of employees. What’s more, many companies don’t need Acrobat’s whiz-bang graphics capabilities, which tend to slow down performance. De Abrew began asking customers what they thought about Adobe. Their responses backed up his hunch. He says he heard complaints from many executives who were tired of paying between $350 and $450 per user to license the software. Acrobat, they said, was sometimes overwhelming and confusing. They wanted a cheaper version that was faster and easier to use. And if ARTS PDF built it, they’d buy it. De Abrew and his colleagues had been kicking around the idea of creating an alternative to Adobe for years but had never seriously pursued it. Now it seemed like a good idea. Adobe was huge, with revenue of $700 million. But a 2003 research report found that the PDF market had the potential to reach $1 billion. De Abrew and Chandler were confident that ARTS PDF had the industry knowledge and engineering chops to pull off a cheaper, scaled-down version of Acrobat. What’s more, the open PDF standard meant anyone could develop applications to compete with Acrobat, so there was little possibility of a lawsuit. The way De Abrew and Chandler saw it, they had two options. They could stick it out and hope that Adobe reconsidered its approach toward third-party developers, the chances of which seemed pretty slim. Or they could try to get a slice of the PDF market for themselves. That would mean alienating their biggest partner. It would also mean refocusing most of their limited resources on developing the new product and all but abandoning the plug-in business that had been so profitable. The stakes couldn’t be higher: If the competing product failed, Adobe wasn’t likely to let them return to the fold. There would be no turning back. The Decision One muggy afternoon in December 2003, in the 100-plus-degree heat of the Australian summer, De Abrew and Chandler sat down with their four-member board of directors at the company’s headquarters and began sketching out a strategy for going up against Adobe. The mood was tense, but as the group looked out a conference room window at the city’s skyline, they knew there was nowhere to go but forward. “We decided we’d rather have our own Acrobat and a shot at a growing market than a slice of a declining one,” De Abrew recalls. Shortly after the meeting, the company’s engineering team, which is based in Nitra, Slovakia, started work on the new product, Nitro PDF. It would be a leaner version of Acrobat’s powerful and feature-rich software and would retail for $99, less than a third of the price of Adobe’s entry-level offering. Thanks to their contacts with Acrobat users and developers worldwide, they already had a strong sense of what the market wanted, not to mention an instant test group for prototypes. De Abrew and Chandler were up front about the move with their contacts at Adobe, which was putting most of its effort into pricier, high-end offerings, and the business relationship between the two companies remained intact. Meanwhile, ARTS PDF went through a radical restructuring, redirecting 80 percent of the company’s employees and cash flow–which formerly had been spread evenly among its plug-in business, Web store, online community, and consulting group–to developing and marketing the software. The other divisions continued to exist, staffed by a skeleton crew and receiving minimal marketing and development dollars. Thanks to this strategy, ARTS PDF was able to stay profitable throughout the entire ramp-up process–and it didn’t have to lay off any full-timers. Eighteen months after starting, ARTS PDF’s team of 60 part-time and full-time engineers completed the application. But the real work was just beginning. In the past, the business had sold its products only through its online store, telephone sales, and a global network of corporate resellers. Now, De Abrew and Chandler began courting big-box retailers. Since they had no retail contacts, they hired a publishing and distribution partner with an established network to negotiate deals for them. They also added staff to their small sales office in San Francisco to establish a bigger U.S. presence and started a word-of-mouth marketing campaign by distributing free beta versions of the software to hundreds of users through the Planet PDF website. In April 2005, De Abrew and Chandler officially unveiled Nitro PDF at a software trade show in Orlando. An Adobe executive speaking at the event mentioned the release in her keynote speech, briefly referring to new competition as she talked about the changing PDF industry. She didn’t show a hint of hostility, but the general reaction from the Adobe team was chilly. In years past, the two groups would have greeted each other like old friends. This time, the conversation was curt. Throughout the conference, the ARTS PDF booth was packed with people interested in learning more about Nitro PDF, and the company left the event with dozens of sales leads, Chandler says. It needed them. Shortly after the conference, Adobe pulled its sponsorship of Planet PDF and launched a competing site, AcrobatUsers.com. It also stopped giving ARTS PDF consulting work. Ricky Liversidge, a director of product marketing at Adobe, says the company’s decision to compete with Acrobat did not come as a surprise. “That changed the relationship to a form of ‘coopetition,’ ” Liversidge says. “In this industry, that’s nothing new. We face that with many different companies.” ARTS PDF isn’t quite the “other Adobe,” but the company is on track to sell 100,000 units this year, according to Chandler. De Abrew and Chandler expect revenue to ramp up significantly this year, fueled by sales at nine major retailers, including Amazon, Office Max, and Circuit City, and 19 corporate resellers around the world. The company’s main concern, Chandler says, continues to be its loss of revenue from the plug-in business. ARTS PDF will eventually start to feel that loss as its Acrobat plug-ins, which the company is no longer developing, become obsolete. “We’ve bet the farm on Nitro and restructured the entire company around our new direction,” Chandler says. “We are playing with the big boys now, but we remain utterly convinced that it was the right decision.” The experts weigh in Corporations won’t buy it ARTS PDF has bet the store on this strategy. There is demand for a lower-cost version of PDF software. That said, I don’t think many large corporations will jump over to Nitro, even if the lower price means they can buy more copies for their employees. Corporate users expect a high level of service from software providers–that’s one of Adobe’s strengths. Smaller companies can’t deliver the same service. Tim Bajarin President Creative Strategies Campbell, California It’s a matter of trust It’s a double-edged sword. Increasingly, I get calls from clients who are upset with Adobe’s pricing model. There are many companies that will say, “Hey, we just need these basic functions and we don’t want to spend the extra money for Acrobat.” On the other hand, Adobe is an extremely well-known company. It’s very hard to overcome that kind of brand loyalty. It’s almost like somebody coming out with an office suite to compete against Microsoft. People know Adobe. I’m not sure they would trust another brand. Rita E. Knox Research vice president Gartner Research Van Nuys, California Creative marketing is key It sounds like a smart strategy, but it won’t be easy. De Abrew and Chandler saw some chinks in Adobe’s armor, studied the marketplace, and found out what people wanted. The question is whether they have the resources to promote Nitro PDF with enough marketing and advertising. They really need to get their message out if they are going to make inroads against a big company like Adobe, which has much deeper pockets. Dave Dolak Founder Marketing by Dave Dolak Charlottesville, Virginia What do you think? Should ARTS PDF have gone head-to-head with Adobe? Sound off at casestudy@inc.com.

About 2788 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Why Cornice Said No, Thanks, to Apple

Kevin Magenis hung up the phone, looked out his office window into his company’s development lab, and thought about what he’d just heard. The callers were from Apple Computer, and they wanted to talk business. Magenis’s start-up, Cornice, had developed tiny hard drives with a one-inch platter for storing music or digital files. And it made them for a third of the price of rivals like IBM. That’s why the Apple execs called that afternoon in late 2002. Would Cornice be interested, they wanted to know, in supplying the drives for the iPod Mini, the new, smaller version of Apple’s MP3 player? Digital music was still new, and no single player had emerged to dominate. But Apple was clearly the most innovative player on the scene and hooking up with the company would definitely be a coup for Cornice. Magenis was tempted. The problem was that Cornice was already working with two other makers of MP3 players, Thomson/RCA and Rio, and the Apple execs were insisting on an exclusive deal. Honoring that request would mean betraying two key clients. Cornice, which is based in Longmont, Colo., had been doing business with those two companies almost from the moment it was founded in 2000. At the time, Thomson and Rio were the leading manufacturers of MP3 players, both of them outselling Apple. Both companies had new products in the prototype stage designed around Cornice’s hard drives, and Cornice expected the two clients to account for as much as 40% of its revenue. Cornice also was negotiating to supply drives, for nonmusic uses, to Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony. Indeed, digital music was just a tiny part of Cornice’s business plan. The way Magenis and his team saw it, the real opportunity was in the much larger market for mobile phones–which they believed eventually would function as hand-held computers, storing and sending all manner of data. Still, Magenis knew he’d be a fool not to at least try to forge a relationship with Apple. He contacted some of his board members and told them about the offer. In addition to an exclusive arrangement, Apple also wanted Cornice to make some changes to its technology; specifically, it wanted Cornice to design a new, double-sided drive capable of storing more information. That seemed reasonable. Nonetheless, the board members concluded it would be bad business to abandon Thomson and Rio. Instead, they decided to propose a compromise: Cornice would keep its two current customers, but the iPod would be the only other MP3-device manufacturer it would make drives for. (Apple declined to comment for this story.) Over the next few months, Magenis made several trips to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and Apple’s engineers came out to Cornice’s Colorado offices. Magenis could sense how excited everyone at Apple seemed to be about the Mini; the iPod team was in constant contact with CEO Steve Jobs, and Magenis couldn’t help but be thrilled when he got to meet the man in passing. In the back of his mind, Magenis fretted that Apple would fix the problems in the digital music business, and Cornice might miss out on being inside the market leader. “I could see it was going to be a hell of an effort on their part,” he says. But Magenis was also juggling nearly 40 other deals. Apple could consume only so much of his time. By the end of the year, Apple was getting impatient. The executives were friendly but insistent. Apple wanted to work with Cornice, but it absolutely refused to budge on the issue of exclusivity. The Decision After hearing the news, Magenis sent an e-mail to his board members. All of them had the same response: It was time to move on. Magenis was disappointed but convinced it was the right decision. Cornice would forget about the iPod and forge ahead with its original business plan. That meant pushing hard into the cell phone market. The first move was to perfect its technology. Hard drives, after all, were invented for computers, which are far less likely to be dropped than cell phones, especially while in use. Cornice’s engineers have been hard at work shockproofing the company’s products. One innovation, CrashGuard, actually alerts the hard drive that the phone has been dropped, allowing the drive to brace itself for impact. Cornice’s drives can now fall 1.5 meters without disturbance–a market best, according to industry analysts. In July, Magenis became Cornice’s chairman, handing CEO duties to Camillo Martino. Both men believe that Cornice’s engineering will give the company an edge with cell phone makers, which obviously do not want consumers calling to complain that their phone stopped working because the hard drive crashed. “We have a two-year advantage on our competitors,” says Martino. Indeed, the company is working with Samsung, one of the world’s largest cell phone makers, to develop hard drives for its upcoming line of high-end smart phones. The iPod Mini, of course, proved every bit as successful as Magenis sensed it would be. The Mini debuted in January 2004, with hard drives from Hitachi. Seagate also became a supplier and both companies lowered prices and expanded storage capacity–essentially erasing Cornice’s early lead. Still, both Magenis and Martino say they have no regrets about Cornice’s decision. “The original vision was to create the ultimate storage solution for cell phones,” says Martino. “The iPod presented a turning point for the company.” Just look at the numbers, they say. According to market researcher iSuppli, the market for all MP3 players will hit 132 million units in 2009. The number of cell phones sold is expected to hit one billion. While only 10% or so are likely to have hard drives, it’s still an enormous market. Martino predicts that in three years hard drives will ship in more than 100 million cell phones a year. No cell phones with hard drives are currently being sold in the U.S. That should change late this year, when Samsung introduces a smart phone with a version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system and a camera that can shoot up to four hours of high-quality video–thanks to a Cornice hard drive. While Cornice waits for the cell phone market to materialize, the company continues to sell to manufacturers of MP3 players, digital video cameras, global-positioning systems, and personal storage units. It’s eyeing the market for hand-held video game players. And the company recently started talking to Apple again and hopes to be in a position to collaborate on some future version of the iPod. “We still covet an Apple opportunity,” Magenis says. The Experts Weigh In A Smart Move If you look at the numbers, it’s probably the smarter move to pick cell phones over the iPod. It’s pretty clear that as these cell phones become more personalized media devices, the demand for localized storage is probably going to increase. Consumers will want to have more stuff on their phones. Cornice is in a very strong leadership position to be a provider to cell phone makers, and that’s the larger potential market. Tim Bajarin Principal analyst Creative Strategies Campbell, Calif. Numbers Don’t Lie I would’ve made the same call. No one knew Apple could knock this out of the park. Focusing on cell phones is a good choice, given where the market is going. Eventually, every device we carry will have a hard drive in it. If you look realistically at the numbers, iPods sell maybe 25 million a year. But in three years there will be 100 million cell phones with hard drives in them. Sean Ryan CEO Donnerwood Media San Francisco I’m Not Convinced Going with cell phones wasn’t a bad move, since that market will always be larger than the MP3 player market. The question is, how many consumers will want a cell phone with 10 gigabytes of storage, with music, photos, video, GPS? There will be cell phones with hard drives. But will there be hundreds of millions of them? I’m not convinced of that at this point. David Reinsel Director of storage research, IDC Framingham, Mass.

About 4828 days ago E-Commerce

Hitting Pay Dirt

Techniques: Microcases Billing Problem: Billing customers quickly and accurately Solution: A Web-based timekeeper that also produces invoices Payoff: Prompt payments Ask Paul Paez what his least favorite part of running a “one-man show” has been, and he’ll answer quickly: writing and sending invoices to customers. “I hate it more than anything I do,” he says. Paez’s five-month-old company, Narrative Group, Interactive, which is based in Campbell, Calif., helps temporary-staffing agencies and other brick-and-mortar service companies market themselves on the Internet using techniques like targeted E-mail lists and banner ads. Why has billing been such a pain for him? For starters, he couldn’t charge for the five hours a month he spent doing it. And since Paez, 36, sells an intangible service, he had to painstakingly detail the jobs that he billed for — everything from “trained administrative assistant how to do mass E-mailing” to “linked company URL to industry Web sites.” The job was so arduous that Paez would often resort to sending out general statements, hoping that his relationships with his customers were strong enough to withstand the professional lapse, or he’d wait so long to do his billing that he’d run into cash-flow problems. “The longer I put it off, the longer it took me to get paid,” he says. He was suffering silently over the issue when, last November, he got a targeted E-mail describing a free Internet-based time-billing service from TimeBills.com, in Boston (617-351-0230; www.timebills.com; $3.95 a month per user for more than five users; enterprise pricing for more than 25 users). “It was like a godsend,” he says. (TimeBills.com is one of several time-tracking sites that have cropped up on the Internet recently. Others include Elite.com, Redgorilla.com, CMSopen.com, and OnlineTimesheets.com.) Paez immediately linked to TimeBills.com, where he created a “TimeBill” for each of his current and upcoming projects: an electronic record listing the type of project, customer name, project dates, and billing rate that he could view by date, by invoice number, or by customer. Because he regularly records his schedule on Microsoft Outlook, Paez could simply import the information from his personal digital assistant. (Users can also import the information from PalmPilots or enter it manually.) Then, as the work proceeded, he updated the record using the site’s “timer” function, which with a click automatically kept track of his hours and calculated the amount the customer owed for each task. Paez’s favorite feature was the program’s “EZ Invoice” function, which enabled him to create polished two-page invoices that, he says, “make me look bigger and more professional than I could on my own.” The first page of the invoice contains a bill summary and a message (either TimeBills.com’s own or one written by the user) explaining the purpose of the invoice, plus a detachable payment stub. The second page is an itemized bill. Paez can print out his invoices at no charge and mail them himself or E-mail them to customers as an attachment. He prefers, however, to have TimeBills mail out the invoices for a fee. (The first three are free, then it’s $4.95 for every three thereafter.) After the invoices have been mailed, Paez uses the service’s “Payment” function to record and track incoming payments. He then monitors his company’s financial health by examining the various statements that TimeBills.com automatically compiles from his customer data – everything from project budgets to expensed items to an accounts-receivable report that reads like a simple aging chart, complete with the status of customers’ payments. By Paez’s reckoning, using TimeBills.com saves him close to $500 a month, since the five hours (at $100 per) that he used to spend on invoicing he can now spend with customers. Then there are the cash-flow benefits: because he now sends out invoices promptly, Paez can get paid within 30 days of a job’s completion date. But he’s most pleased with how TimeBills.com allows him — with little effort — to fully spell out what his customers are paying for. “Now I can be fully accountable for my hours,” he says. “It enables me to deliver more value to the relationship.”