Developers and computing equipment manufacturers can take advantage of NFC support for Windows 8 to offer a wide variety of consumer and enterprise use cases such as offering promotions, coupons, and discount codes via NFC tags and posters; bringing physical touch points to online social networking for enhanced check-in experience; perform surveys and brand reviews; add NFC-enabled tokens to unlock or enhance a gaming experience; and, enable content delivery in document, audio or video format.
Since May there has been a near constant, sub-cellular buzz on the Internet about something called an Intel Ultrabook. But what, exactly, are we looking at here?
First, let’s understand how Intel “releases” notebooks. Intel makes chips. That, in general, is all they do and all they ever want to do. However, the company often releases reference designs or plans for future products. These reference designs have included embedded systems for machinery (using Intel chips), point of sale systems for stores (using Intel chips) and low-power “in-vehicle Infotainment systems” (using Intel chips.)
In short, Intel builds something, gives manufacturers the plans (and guidelines), and then sells them a few million chips that will go inside the hardware. That’s why most laptops are, inside, essentially the same: They’re based on a reference design passed along from chipmaker to manufacturer like holy writ.
Every once in a while, though, Intel releases something a bit more impressive than a point-of-sale system. Thus we have the Ultrabook. The Ultrabook is an ultra-slim laptop (think MacBook Air) that maxes out at 0.8 inches thick. Ultrabooks will cost less than $1,000 and they will, obviously, use Intel chips. Other than following those guidelines, however, manufacturers can riff on Ultrabooks like Satchmo on “Cornet Chop Suey.” However, most will depend on one of Intel’s five current reference designs on which to base their manufacturing plans.
The first notebook in the Ultrabook line is the Asus UX21, a .67-inch laptop that is thinner than the Air, includes a 11.6-inch display, one USB 2.0 port and one brand new USB 3.0 port. New processors will join the line-up next year as other manufacturers begin the Ultrabook push.
These laptops are expected to have instant-on features that allows you snap the laptop open and use it immediately. Most will also eschew a mechanical hard drive for on powered by SSDs.
So far the promise of cheap, thin, and light is like a three-legged stool missing a leg: the UX21 and the 13-inch UX31 will cost over $1,000 when launched in September and currently manufacturers are struggling to price their hardware below Intel’s requested rate.
This doesn’t mean that Ultrabooks won’t fall below $1,000 in the next year or so. Intel is already cracking down on manufacturers to keep their prices down and, recalling the meteoric drop in netbook prices a few years back, it’s clear that the consumer is hungry for—and expecting—cheaper and cheaper laptops every year.
As 2011 gets under way, and a lot of outside market conditions are influencing our Partners and thereby our indirect sales. Therefore it is time to ponder the key IT trends and IT industry developments likely to impact our Partner Management. Vendors and channel partners alike will find these observations valuable as they update their respective strategies. Highlights of these analysis are as follows:
1. Risking collision with smaller partners, suppliers will continue to increase their focus on SMBs and to encourage their enterprise partners to target the midmarket.
2. Partner networks will continue to flourish with or without the inclusion of suppliers and distributors.
3. IT vendors and their partners will integrate social networks in their partner relationship management (PRM) and customer relationship management (CRM) portals to gain competitive edge.
4. Suppliers and distributors will continue to drive more leasing and financing targeted toward reseller partners as a natural evolution to managed services.
5. Infrastructure suppliers will continue to bet on two very different horses ISVs and reselling partners to drive revenue growth.
6. Telecom service providers will continue to challenge their IT counterparts for higher-margin solutions and services business in all customer segments
8. Certain channel partner types will have to evolve their business models much faster than others as the market shifts away from their traditional product and service offerings.
9. Managed services will become a key activity for channel partners seeking to deepen their relationship with customers.
10. As leading hardware vendors look increasingly to software for growth, their partners will invest more in software and get closer to applications in the dominant environments (networking).
As mentioned are these some observations that might be valuable for one or the other, in order to update or adjust your respective strategies.
Regards
