Wall-e and 9 movie
-
Watch at least two of the following movies:
• Make a comprehensive reaction paper for the two movies in no less than
300 words each.
• Make a comparative ...
13 years ago
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Consider the following dialogue between a systemsprofessional, John Juan, and a manager of a department targeted for a new information system, Peter Pedro:
Juan: The way to go about the analysis is to first examine the old system, such as reviewing key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks. Then we can determine which aspects are working well and which should be preserved.
Pedro: We have been through these types of projects before and what always ends up happening is that we do not get the new system we are promised; we get a modified version of the old system.
Juan: Well, I can assure you that will not happen this time. We just want a thorough understanding of what is working well and what isn’t.
Pedro: I would feel much more comfortable if we first started with a list of our requirements. We should spend some time up-front determining exactly what we want the system to do for my department. Then you systems people can come in and determine what portions to salvage if you wish. Just don’t constrain us to the old system.
Required:
a.Obviously these two workers have different views on how the systems analysis phase should be conducted. Comment on whose position you sympathize with the most.
b.What method would you propose they take? Why?
Well, before I start, let me first define analysis phase and it's categories of analysis.
The analysis phase is the building block of a training program. The basis for who must be trained, what must be trained, when training will occur, and where the training will take place are accomplished in this phase. The product of this phase is the foundation for all subsequent development activities. The analysis phase is often called a Front-End Analysis. That is, although you might perform analysis throughout the ISD process, such as in the design and development phases, this "front end" of the ISD process is where the main problem identification is performed.
When performing an analysis, it is best to take a long term approach to ensure that the performance improvement initiative ties in with the organization's vision, mission, and values. This connects each need with a metric to ensure that it actually does what it is supposed to do. This is best accomplished by linking performance analysis needs with Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluations, which means their are four catagories of analysis (Phillips, 2002).
Business Needs
Investigate the problem or performance initiative and see how it supports the mission statement, leader's vision, and/or organizational goals, etc. Fixing a problem or making a process better is just as good as an ROI, if not better. Organizations that focus strictly on ROI are normally focusing on cost-cutting. And you can only cut costs so far before you start stripping out the core parts of a business. A much better approach is to improve a performance or process that supports a key organization goal, vision, or mission. When senior executives were asked the most important training initiatives, 77% cited, "aligning learning strategies with business goals"; 75% cited, "ensuring learning content meets workforce requirements"; and 72%, "boosting productivity and agility" (Training Magazine, Oct 2004). Thus, senior leadership is not looking at training to be a profit center (that is what other business units are for), rather they are looking at performance improvement initiatives to help "grow" the organization so that it can reach its goals and perform its mission. The goal is to make an impact or get some sort of result. So once you have identified the gap between present performance and the organization's goals and vision; create a level 4 evaluation (impact) that measures it -- that is, what criteria must be met in order to show that the gap has actually been bridged?
Job Performance Needs
While the first analysis looked at business needs, this analysis looks at the job performance needs and these two needs could slightly differ. The first need, business, often has a slightly more visionary or future look to it, while the job performance need normally looks at what is needed now. Thus, business needs often tend to be more developmental in nature (future orientated), while job performance needs are normally more related towards the present. This is perhaps the most important need to look at as it links the performer with the organization. When analyzing job performance, you want to look at the entire spectrum that surrounds the job: processes, environment, actual performance verses need performance, etc, thus it often helps to divide the analysis into three groups: people, data, and things.
Training Needs
As you assess the performance for any needed interventions, look at the Job/Performer requirements, that is, what the performer needs to know in order for the performance intervention to be successful. In addition, look at how you are going to evaluate any learning requirements (level 2). It is one thing to determine the learning needs (skill, knowledge, & self system [attitude, metacognition, etc.]), but it is quite another thing to ensure that those requirements actually take place.
Individual Needs
It ensures that the performance intervention actually conforms to the individual requirements. For example, in the Training Needs analysis, it might be determined that the job holders need to learn a new process. In this need analysis, the target population is looked at more closely to determine the actual content, context, and delivery method of the performance intervention.
***On the dialogue above, obviously I would prefer to sympathize with Peter Pedro since he is the manager of a department targeted for a new information system. It was stated about the analysis phase that when performing an analysis, it is best to take a long term approach to ensure that the performance improvement initiative ties in with the organization's vision, mission, and values. This connects each need with a metric to ensure that it actually does what it is supposed to do. Since Peter Pedro is the manager of the department, well he obviously knows what is best for the information system that will be implemented on his department. He is the one who surely knows all the transactions being processed in the department which will be appended on the information system that John Juan would be developing.
***I would propose they will take the method that Peter Pedro had suggested for the analysis phase of the system. Since Peter Pedro is the acting client on the proposed system, of course he would be the one to specify the needs of his department that the system would have. Understanding a clients business is central to developing the right solution and the analysis stage allows Tectura to develop this knowledge. It is also the stage where John Juan and the other systems people work with their clients such as Peter Pedro to examine the standard software functionality and whether their specific business requirements will mean modifications or customisation of the standard software.
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat2.html
http://www.au.tectura.com/Page/cm95/Analsis_phase_95.asp?d=1
Juan: The way to go about the analysis is to first examine the old system, such as reviewing key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks. Then we can determine which aspects are working well and which should be preserved.
Pedro: We have been through these types of projects before and what always ends up happening is that we do not get the new system we are promised; we get a modified version of the old system.
Juan: Well, I can assure you that will not happen this time. We just want a thorough understanding of what is working well and what isn’t.
Pedro: I would feel much more comfortable if we first started with a list of our requirements. We should spend some time up-front determining exactly what we want the system to do for my department. Then you systems people can come in and determine what portions to salvage if you wish. Just don’t constrain us to the old system.
Required:
a.Obviously these two workers have different views on how the systems analysis phase should be conducted. Comment on whose position you sympathize with the most.
b.What method would you propose they take? Why?
Well, before I start, let me first define analysis phase and it's categories of analysis.
The analysis phase is the building block of a training program. The basis for who must be trained, what must be trained, when training will occur, and where the training will take place are accomplished in this phase. The product of this phase is the foundation for all subsequent development activities. The analysis phase is often called a Front-End Analysis. That is, although you might perform analysis throughout the ISD process, such as in the design and development phases, this "front end" of the ISD process is where the main problem identification is performed.
When performing an analysis, it is best to take a long term approach to ensure that the performance improvement initiative ties in with the organization's vision, mission, and values. This connects each need with a metric to ensure that it actually does what it is supposed to do. This is best accomplished by linking performance analysis needs with Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluations, which means their are four catagories of analysis (Phillips, 2002).
Business Needs
Investigate the problem or performance initiative and see how it supports the mission statement, leader's vision, and/or organizational goals, etc. Fixing a problem or making a process better is just as good as an ROI, if not better. Organizations that focus strictly on ROI are normally focusing on cost-cutting. And you can only cut costs so far before you start stripping out the core parts of a business. A much better approach is to improve a performance or process that supports a key organization goal, vision, or mission. When senior executives were asked the most important training initiatives, 77% cited, "aligning learning strategies with business goals"; 75% cited, "ensuring learning content meets workforce requirements"; and 72%, "boosting productivity and agility" (Training Magazine, Oct 2004). Thus, senior leadership is not looking at training to be a profit center (that is what other business units are for), rather they are looking at performance improvement initiatives to help "grow" the organization so that it can reach its goals and perform its mission. The goal is to make an impact or get some sort of result. So once you have identified the gap between present performance and the organization's goals and vision; create a level 4 evaluation (impact) that measures it -- that is, what criteria must be met in order to show that the gap has actually been bridged?
Job Performance Needs
While the first analysis looked at business needs, this analysis looks at the job performance needs and these two needs could slightly differ. The first need, business, often has a slightly more visionary or future look to it, while the job performance need normally looks at what is needed now. Thus, business needs often tend to be more developmental in nature (future orientated), while job performance needs are normally more related towards the present. This is perhaps the most important need to look at as it links the performer with the organization. When analyzing job performance, you want to look at the entire spectrum that surrounds the job: processes, environment, actual performance verses need performance, etc, thus it often helps to divide the analysis into three groups: people, data, and things.
Training Needs
As you assess the performance for any needed interventions, look at the Job/Performer requirements, that is, what the performer needs to know in order for the performance intervention to be successful. In addition, look at how you are going to evaluate any learning requirements (level 2). It is one thing to determine the learning needs (skill, knowledge, & self system [attitude, metacognition, etc.]), but it is quite another thing to ensure that those requirements actually take place.
Individual Needs
It ensures that the performance intervention actually conforms to the individual requirements. For example, in the Training Needs analysis, it might be determined that the job holders need to learn a new process. In this need analysis, the target population is looked at more closely to determine the actual content, context, and delivery method of the performance intervention.
***On the dialogue above, obviously I would prefer to sympathize with Peter Pedro since he is the manager of a department targeted for a new information system. It was stated about the analysis phase that when performing an analysis, it is best to take a long term approach to ensure that the performance improvement initiative ties in with the organization's vision, mission, and values. This connects each need with a metric to ensure that it actually does what it is supposed to do. Since Peter Pedro is the manager of the department, well he obviously knows what is best for the information system that will be implemented on his department. He is the one who surely knows all the transactions being processed in the department which will be appended on the information system that John Juan would be developing.
***I would propose they will take the method that Peter Pedro had suggested for the analysis phase of the system. Since Peter Pedro is the acting client on the proposed system, of course he would be the one to specify the needs of his department that the system would have. Understanding a clients business is central to developing the right solution and the analysis stage allows Tectura to develop this knowledge. It is also the stage where John Juan and the other systems people work with their clients such as Peter Pedro to examine the standard software functionality and whether their specific business requirements will mean modifications or customisation of the standard software.
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat2.html
http://www.au.tectura.com/Page/cm95/Analsis_phase_95.asp?d=1
Arguably the most popular search engine available today, Google is widely known for its unparalleled search engine technology, embodied in the web page ranking algorithm, Page Ranking and running on an efficient distributed computer system. In fact, the verb “to Google” has ingrained itself in the vernacular as a synonym of “[performing] a web search.” The key to Google’s success has been its strategic use of both software and hardware information technologies. The IT infrastructure behind the search engine includes huge storage databases and numerous server farms to produce significant computational processing power. These critical IT components are distributed across multiple independent computers that provide parallel computing resources. This architecture has allowed Google’s business to reach a market capital over $100 billion and become one of the most respected and admirable companies in the world.
Google is one such name in the Technology arena that is well poised to rule. Talking of past decade, it’s been all the way up for Google and undoubtedly they have been ruling the internet economy. Google have had its impact in the industry with more than 150 products and will continue to grow with its ever increasing portfolio of products.
Google’s Competitors
Google face competition in every aspect of their rapidly evolving business, particularly from other companies that seek to connect people with online information and provide them with relevant advertising. Currently Google consider their primary competitors to be Microsoft and Yahoo.
But in a blog that I’ve read, the author predicted the 10 companies that will become the 10 Toughest Competitors of Google in 2010. And these are:
1. Apple
Being from partners to rivals, Apple is one of the stringent opponents for Google in the year 2010. Today, Apple and Google have been locking their horns in the field of Smartphone, Mobile App Store, OS, Mobile Ad, and Online Music and so on. Likewise, Apple is more than up to the task of battling Google in these areas as well as browsers, where Google Chrome competes against Apple Safari. But battle between will intensify, as the market for the digital music and SmartPhones is all set for growth in 2010. Google’s music search along with its partner MySpace and Pandora are looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes, which was the No 1 music retailer in United States in 2009. Further, Google’s Android will have tough time as Apple’s iPhones continues to grab hold of the market all round the globe.
2. Microsoft
Microsoft is a company that have had one of the most dominant impacts in the IT industry. So without a doubt it is Google’s biggest adversary in 2010 and these two giants will be locking their horns for market supremacy in areas such as search, collaboration tools and browsers. Talking of these two giants, Google has reigned as leaders in search, but with release of BING in May 2009, Microsoft has raised few questions amongst in Google’s management team. With features such as ranking search results based on relevancy to other users, Microsoft has inked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo. Microsoft continued to enhance Bing, adding image search and mapping. But in response Google have unveiled real time search. In December, Google also added a photo search capability, a dictionary and a translator that finds relevant content in 40 languages. Entering 2010, Google still dominates search, with more than 70% of the market. Apart from search, the battle is likely to focus on cloud based collaboration tool. Google Apps is designed to undercut sales of Microsoft products, including Exchange and SharePoint. Microsoft has responded with Office Web Apps, free Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are due out in 2010. Last but not the least; the browser war between these two is giants are likely to heat up in 2010. So 2010 awaits the answer if ever so popular Microsoft’s premier browser’s market share could be brought down by Google’s Chrome.
3. Amazon
In 2009, Google’s effort of scanning millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them in online search did gain up some momentum and helped themselves to publish over 500000 digital books for free to customers of Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which is due in January. Further, there claims of opening up Google Editions, an e-book store, has opened up new rivalry with Amazon. Amazon with its Kindle e-book reader is one of the leaders in e-book reader’s market. The other area where Google is taking on Amazon is in cloud computing. Google’s Apps Engine, a newbie cloud computing platform that allows developers to create their own Web applications and run them on Google’s infrastructure will be competing with Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) which has already grab hold of market with its several upgrade after its release in 2006. So it will be a great battle to watch when these two giants fight for market supremacy on Cloud computing and E-book readership.
4. Facebook
Facebook, probably the most popular stuff in the internet right now, has attracted 350 million active users in just six years and is subject of interest for the guys at Google too. In 2010, Google and Facebook rivalry is likely to heat up based on question that where will people find there information in future in Search or Social Network? With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of Facebook, Google’s worry seems to a viable one. So, in 2010 Google with its ORKUT will be in battle with Facebook. Orkut offers Google Friend Connect, a tool for Web publishers to add social networking content to their sites, in direct competition with similarly named Facebook Connect. Meanwhile, Facebook has sought out relationships with several arch-enemies of Google, including Microsoft and Yahoo. So its for sure that this battle is worth taking a note off in 2010.
5. Twitter
No doubt if Facebook is in rise, than it’s no difference with Twitter. If social networking is the way to go, then Google will certainly find Twitter in its way. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, has in a way revolutionized the way we communicate these days. So, Google’s Friend Connect will face tough competitions for Twitter’s Connect in 2010 as Twitter looks to move up the rank in the areas of Social Networking. Other areas where these two find themselves competing are Real time search. Google’s real time search and Twitter’s will be trying to outperform each other in 2010. So, this battle will be a good one to watch for in 2010.
6. Mozilla
With release of Google Chrome, Google has stepped into ever so popular browse battle. Mozilla has been in the markets for years and now this step from Google is likely to create the conflict of interest between these two. Of late the war between the two has heated up even more. The battle has now gone to default search. Mozilla now has shown intent to kick Google out from its default search engine status. The latest rumours on the internet show that Mozilla is now eyeing to get a deal with Microsoft to make Bing as its default search engine in Firefox. This may not impact Google immediately but eventually this move, if comes true, is likely to decrease Google’s share of the search market. Hence, Google now has Mozilla on a double war zone; first the obvious browser war and now the war over default searches.
7. Yahoo
When it comes to search, one of Google’s biggest competitors besides Microsoft is Yahoo. Yahoo has been in the market with variety of products in areas of email, Messenger, News, Search and Analytics services. So without doubt it will be a fearsome competitor for Google. In 2009, Yahoo made some improvements in 2009 by integrating search with its rich content. Users can watch videos or stream music straight from the Yahoo search results page. Yahoo also helps users find travel deals and compare product prices. Further, Yahoo has recently added Twitter to its search Page and if a joint search and advertising deal between Yahoo and Microsoft is approved by federal regulators. This could prove costly to Google so the 2010 is the year to watch as other competitor look to outperform Google in the market with different joint forces being formed by their rivals.
8. Cisco
Google definitely has a tough challenge against Cisco. With years of experience on web based collaborative platfomr, WebEx, and superior VOIP service, Cisco poses a threat to Google’s Wave and Voice. In addition to this, Cisco also is looking to enhance its video conferencing quality by focusing on collaboration through intenret video, desktop video and consumer Telepresence. In addition to this, Cisco’s presence in Cloud is another leading edge it has over Google. As Google is looking to take everything to the web, it certainly will face a good competition from Cisco on this front. Moreover, according to Networkworld, Cisco is looking to enter into Smartphone market in the very near future (actually by mid-2010). Its recent acquisition of Pure Digital and Flip shows Cisco’s intent to take video to the mobile phone. Thus, we might see Cisco giving a hard time to Google’s Nexus One in the coming days.
9. IBM
By now it’s quite crystal clear that 2010 will the year where big internet giants will be trying to gain whole lot of market share that will be up for grab in areas of collaboration tools. So, 2010 is likely to reopen Google’s rivalry with IBM with the release of new collaboration tools such as Google Wave. Google has stepped into the battle field with its low cost hosted collaboration tools such as Google Apps. Google will compete against IBM’s Lotus Lives, which has attracted more than 2 million businesses in the last two years.
10. Nokia
Today, Nokia has had grab hold of the mobile phone market with 4 out of 10 mobiles sold. With increase in use of smart phones, means the IT giants Google will be in rivalry with Nokia in periphery of operating systems for Smartphones. Symbian Open source operating system will be competing with Google’s Android. Nokia with recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices. With claim of releasing improved version of Symbian in 2010 means Google Android will have to face off tough battle. But, Google’s Android is poised for major developments in 2010 and with commitments from Acer, Sony Ericcson, HTC and Motorola this will be a worthwhile battle to watch in 2010 and years to come. So, at this point one may feel Google has tough battle to fight in 2010. Most of the arch rivals are gearing up to poise serious threats either single handed or with collaboration. So, 10 line ups of interesting battle is all set to keep the 2010 interesting enough for us to watch and keep the Google on their toes.
GOOGLE’S BUSINESS MODEL AND STRATEGY
Business Model
Since its beginning as a research project from two Computer Science doctorate students at Stanford University, Google has continued to follow its mission “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”2 From Google’s founding in 1997 until 2000, the company did not have a well-defined business model to generate revenues. In 2001, Google’s two co-founders hired Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of Novell and former CTO at Sun Microsystems, as the new CEO of Google to help drive the effort in creating a business model for Google. With new management leadership, Google created a core business in online advertising, enabled by the millions of users using its search engine everyday. Revenue generation and profit growth in online advertising came from both Google’s search engine homepage and partner websites that display Google sponsored advertisements. Google created a cost-per-click pricing scheme for sponsored advertisements such that advertisers only pay a base fee, and for the number of referrals to their site.
Business Strategy
Google is generally secretive about its business strategy, but it is evident that Google is building the foundation for all of its products and services under the central theme of leveraging advanced search technology and personalized advertising. To maintain its reputation as a forefront technology leader and innovator, Google has been aggressively acquiring software start-up companies that can be easily integrated into its existing solutions, and can instantaneously gain visibility through Google’s leverage. However, this strategy of growing through small acquisitions is also used by Yahoo, one of Google’s major competitors, although the underlying methodology of the acquisitions is different. Yahoo’s acquisitions have been focused on acquiring search technology companies having specialized search functionalities. Yahoo has a group of search technologies for different products and services, while Google has only one search technology. Over time with greater competition, an online advertising network may be commoditized and Google will need to develop new business models to entice new customers and enhance relationships with existing ones for customer lock-ins (Elgin, 2004). For existing customers, Google has Advanced Tools & Reporting to support sophisticated advertisers, and Google plans to tighten integration with other Google related products in advertising. To reach new markets faster, Google is expanding its advertising business beyond online marketing to other mediums, including radio and print.
http://investor.google.com/faq.html#competitors
http://technology.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/10-toughest-competitors-of-google-in-2010/
http://www.crito.uci.edu/papers/2007/Google.pdf
Google is one such name in the Technology arena that is well poised to rule. Talking of past decade, it’s been all the way up for Google and undoubtedly they have been ruling the internet economy. Google have had its impact in the industry with more than 150 products and will continue to grow with its ever increasing portfolio of products.
Google’s Competitors
Google face competition in every aspect of their rapidly evolving business, particularly from other companies that seek to connect people with online information and provide them with relevant advertising. Currently Google consider their primary competitors to be Microsoft and Yahoo.
But in a blog that I’ve read, the author predicted the 10 companies that will become the 10 Toughest Competitors of Google in 2010. And these are:
1. Apple
Being from partners to rivals, Apple is one of the stringent opponents for Google in the year 2010. Today, Apple and Google have been locking their horns in the field of Smartphone, Mobile App Store, OS, Mobile Ad, and Online Music and so on. Likewise, Apple is more than up to the task of battling Google in these areas as well as browsers, where Google Chrome competes against Apple Safari. But battle between will intensify, as the market for the digital music and SmartPhones is all set for growth in 2010. Google’s music search along with its partner MySpace and Pandora are looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes, which was the No 1 music retailer in United States in 2009. Further, Google’s Android will have tough time as Apple’s iPhones continues to grab hold of the market all round the globe.
2. Microsoft
Microsoft is a company that have had one of the most dominant impacts in the IT industry. So without a doubt it is Google’s biggest adversary in 2010 and these two giants will be locking their horns for market supremacy in areas such as search, collaboration tools and browsers. Talking of these two giants, Google has reigned as leaders in search, but with release of BING in May 2009, Microsoft has raised few questions amongst in Google’s management team. With features such as ranking search results based on relevancy to other users, Microsoft has inked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo. Microsoft continued to enhance Bing, adding image search and mapping. But in response Google have unveiled real time search. In December, Google also added a photo search capability, a dictionary and a translator that finds relevant content in 40 languages. Entering 2010, Google still dominates search, with more than 70% of the market. Apart from search, the battle is likely to focus on cloud based collaboration tool. Google Apps is designed to undercut sales of Microsoft products, including Exchange and SharePoint. Microsoft has responded with Office Web Apps, free Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are due out in 2010. Last but not the least; the browser war between these two is giants are likely to heat up in 2010. So 2010 awaits the answer if ever so popular Microsoft’s premier browser’s market share could be brought down by Google’s Chrome.
3. Amazon
In 2009, Google’s effort of scanning millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them in online search did gain up some momentum and helped themselves to publish over 500000 digital books for free to customers of Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which is due in January. Further, there claims of opening up Google Editions, an e-book store, has opened up new rivalry with Amazon. Amazon with its Kindle e-book reader is one of the leaders in e-book reader’s market. The other area where Google is taking on Amazon is in cloud computing. Google’s Apps Engine, a newbie cloud computing platform that allows developers to create their own Web applications and run them on Google’s infrastructure will be competing with Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) which has already grab hold of market with its several upgrade after its release in 2006. So it will be a great battle to watch when these two giants fight for market supremacy on Cloud computing and E-book readership.
4. Facebook
Facebook, probably the most popular stuff in the internet right now, has attracted 350 million active users in just six years and is subject of interest for the guys at Google too. In 2010, Google and Facebook rivalry is likely to heat up based on question that where will people find there information in future in Search or Social Network? With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of Facebook, Google’s worry seems to a viable one. So, in 2010 Google with its ORKUT will be in battle with Facebook. Orkut offers Google Friend Connect, a tool for Web publishers to add social networking content to their sites, in direct competition with similarly named Facebook Connect. Meanwhile, Facebook has sought out relationships with several arch-enemies of Google, including Microsoft and Yahoo. So its for sure that this battle is worth taking a note off in 2010.
5. Twitter
No doubt if Facebook is in rise, than it’s no difference with Twitter. If social networking is the way to go, then Google will certainly find Twitter in its way. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, has in a way revolutionized the way we communicate these days. So, Google’s Friend Connect will face tough competitions for Twitter’s Connect in 2010 as Twitter looks to move up the rank in the areas of Social Networking. Other areas where these two find themselves competing are Real time search. Google’s real time search and Twitter’s will be trying to outperform each other in 2010. So, this battle will be a good one to watch for in 2010.
6. Mozilla
With release of Google Chrome, Google has stepped into ever so popular browse battle. Mozilla has been in the markets for years and now this step from Google is likely to create the conflict of interest between these two. Of late the war between the two has heated up even more. The battle has now gone to default search. Mozilla now has shown intent to kick Google out from its default search engine status. The latest rumours on the internet show that Mozilla is now eyeing to get a deal with Microsoft to make Bing as its default search engine in Firefox. This may not impact Google immediately but eventually this move, if comes true, is likely to decrease Google’s share of the search market. Hence, Google now has Mozilla on a double war zone; first the obvious browser war and now the war over default searches.
7. Yahoo
When it comes to search, one of Google’s biggest competitors besides Microsoft is Yahoo. Yahoo has been in the market with variety of products in areas of email, Messenger, News, Search and Analytics services. So without doubt it will be a fearsome competitor for Google. In 2009, Yahoo made some improvements in 2009 by integrating search with its rich content. Users can watch videos or stream music straight from the Yahoo search results page. Yahoo also helps users find travel deals and compare product prices. Further, Yahoo has recently added Twitter to its search Page and if a joint search and advertising deal between Yahoo and Microsoft is approved by federal regulators. This could prove costly to Google so the 2010 is the year to watch as other competitor look to outperform Google in the market with different joint forces being formed by their rivals.
8. Cisco
Google definitely has a tough challenge against Cisco. With years of experience on web based collaborative platfomr, WebEx, and superior VOIP service, Cisco poses a threat to Google’s Wave and Voice. In addition to this, Cisco also is looking to enhance its video conferencing quality by focusing on collaboration through intenret video, desktop video and consumer Telepresence. In addition to this, Cisco’s presence in Cloud is another leading edge it has over Google. As Google is looking to take everything to the web, it certainly will face a good competition from Cisco on this front. Moreover, according to Networkworld, Cisco is looking to enter into Smartphone market in the very near future (actually by mid-2010). Its recent acquisition of Pure Digital and Flip shows Cisco’s intent to take video to the mobile phone. Thus, we might see Cisco giving a hard time to Google’s Nexus One in the coming days.
9. IBM
By now it’s quite crystal clear that 2010 will the year where big internet giants will be trying to gain whole lot of market share that will be up for grab in areas of collaboration tools. So, 2010 is likely to reopen Google’s rivalry with IBM with the release of new collaboration tools such as Google Wave. Google has stepped into the battle field with its low cost hosted collaboration tools such as Google Apps. Google will compete against IBM’s Lotus Lives, which has attracted more than 2 million businesses in the last two years.
10. Nokia
Today, Nokia has had grab hold of the mobile phone market with 4 out of 10 mobiles sold. With increase in use of smart phones, means the IT giants Google will be in rivalry with Nokia in periphery of operating systems for Smartphones. Symbian Open source operating system will be competing with Google’s Android. Nokia with recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices. With claim of releasing improved version of Symbian in 2010 means Google Android will have to face off tough battle. But, Google’s Android is poised for major developments in 2010 and with commitments from Acer, Sony Ericcson, HTC and Motorola this will be a worthwhile battle to watch in 2010 and years to come. So, at this point one may feel Google has tough battle to fight in 2010. Most of the arch rivals are gearing up to poise serious threats either single handed or with collaboration. So, 10 line ups of interesting battle is all set to keep the 2010 interesting enough for us to watch and keep the Google on their toes.
GOOGLE’S BUSINESS MODEL AND STRATEGY
Business Model
Since its beginning as a research project from two Computer Science doctorate students at Stanford University, Google has continued to follow its mission “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”2 From Google’s founding in 1997 until 2000, the company did not have a well-defined business model to generate revenues. In 2001, Google’s two co-founders hired Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of Novell and former CTO at Sun Microsystems, as the new CEO of Google to help drive the effort in creating a business model for Google. With new management leadership, Google created a core business in online advertising, enabled by the millions of users using its search engine everyday. Revenue generation and profit growth in online advertising came from both Google’s search engine homepage and partner websites that display Google sponsored advertisements. Google created a cost-per-click pricing scheme for sponsored advertisements such that advertisers only pay a base fee, and for the number of referrals to their site.
Business Strategy
Google is generally secretive about its business strategy, but it is evident that Google is building the foundation for all of its products and services under the central theme of leveraging advanced search technology and personalized advertising. To maintain its reputation as a forefront technology leader and innovator, Google has been aggressively acquiring software start-up companies that can be easily integrated into its existing solutions, and can instantaneously gain visibility through Google’s leverage. However, this strategy of growing through small acquisitions is also used by Yahoo, one of Google’s major competitors, although the underlying methodology of the acquisitions is different. Yahoo’s acquisitions have been focused on acquiring search technology companies having specialized search functionalities. Yahoo has a group of search technologies for different products and services, while Google has only one search technology. Over time with greater competition, an online advertising network may be commoditized and Google will need to develop new business models to entice new customers and enhance relationships with existing ones for customer lock-ins (Elgin, 2004). For existing customers, Google has Advanced Tools & Reporting to support sophisticated advertisers, and Google plans to tighten integration with other Google related products in advertising. To reach new markets faster, Google is expanding its advertising business beyond online marketing to other mediums, including radio and print.
http://investor.google.com/faq.html#competitors
http://technology.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/10-toughest-competitors-of-google-in-2010/
http://www.crito.uci.edu/papers/2007/Google.pdf
;;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
