In the morning, I got up early in order to attend the Citigroup breakfast session and the mock interview thereafter. Right now, I am waiting for my Options class to begin. Tonight is going to be a testing night...primarily due to assignments due tomorrow and also the follow up on the recruiters....along with some weekend events such as the McKinsey breakfast!
At the Citi session for MISM students (Technology Associate position), Kos...one of their MDs had come in and he emphasized how technology helped him while on the trading floor. Also, Citi being the drivers and pioneers...they understand the strategic importance of IT for their business. Fortunately, I could meet Chandra there. He was glad to take a break from his usual days (I think so).
Later, at about 9 am, I left the session to go down to the Career Center for the mock interview with Raytheon. I selected this firm with an intention of having a mock interview which drills me on Project management and stuff like that. However, I got to know 100% of their projects are "classified". Damn !
Thursday, September 21, 2006
cross cultural sensitivities
For the course of International business management, I prepared a presentation along with a skit...and presented it to the whole class. It was well appreciated because it was more engaging and we tried to incorporate as much in it as we can.
Later, with presentations from others...we received knowledge about doing business with
Bob Dalton is awesome...w.r.t. directing the discussions and getting some of the most imp issues up....while conducting the class.
btw, I got to know a new thing..... DaLady's boyfriend is/was Indian. This came out during one of the points in the presentation!
Later, with presentations from others...we received knowledge about doing business with
- Kosovons
- Germans
- Egyptians
- Iranians
- Koreans
- Chinese
- Greeks
- Americans (duh!)...especially sensitivities associated with African Americans
- etc etc
Bob Dalton is awesome...w.r.t. directing the discussions and getting some of the most imp issues up....while conducting the class.
btw, I got to know a new thing..... DaLady's boyfriend is/was Indian. This came out during one of the points in the presentation!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Recruiters ahoy !
Wow - last 2 days have been absolutely fan_damn_tastic !
Started off with Google on Monday evening... Thereafter, Yahoo, UBS ..blah...blah...blah....
Today, TOC was the event.... I pushed myself beyond physical limits. Microsoft initial screening interview went well (spice rack for blind ppl) ! After that, so many other recruiters that I have lost track.
Right now, I have to focus on BOC tomorrow and SalesForce interview at 11:30 am tom morning.
signing off right now and will be back soon.
Started off with Google on Monday evening... Thereafter, Yahoo, UBS ..blah...blah...blah....
Today, TOC was the event.... I pushed myself beyond physical limits. Microsoft initial screening interview went well (spice rack for blind ppl) ! After that, so many other recruiters that I have lost track.
Right now, I have to focus on BOC tomorrow and SalesForce interview at 11:30 am tom morning.
signing off right now and will be back soon.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Tech Sunday !
Before the D-day, we have a Sunday full of sessions... !
It started with an engaging talk with John P who gave a brief perspective of how ages have evolved. Currently, it is the Age of Individual in which ppl want to reinvent themselves. Age of new economy preceeded it and age of diversity preceeded even before it with boomers. Abilities, Interests intersect to form an avocation. Interests, Markets intersect to make a Dream. Abilities and Markets make a job. The AIM is to get the Target which lies at the intersection of Abilities, Interests, and Markets!
Now, that's insightful!
AdvanceMe Associates lady mentioned about how to make the best first impression. The Berkin Stocks case she mentioned about the guy wearing blue shirt and dressing conservatively dressing causing him to lose the job made me think about the employers I plan to apply to.
boy, I gotta get a new wardrobe. Also, Bee aint gonna help me with that :( So, it's all me ... to go and shop for my wardrobe and accessories.
In the last session, Jerome Laday, Director of HR-L'Oreal, mentioned about mentioning experiences in the format of STAR:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ernst & Young's national recruiter Wendy Wildt guided me for doing an internship after graduation if I want to do a career switch! She was really nice in listening at the pain I had at my previous employer.
"Territorial" was the word she used for describing some top ppl in an organization who do not let employees go. Deepak Padaki, our Engagement Manager at Infosys was one such fellow. His justification was that if I have invested in you for couple of years training you to become a Telecom consultant then why should I allow your transfer to some other vertical? My rationale was ..I was in AT&T account - but I was doing Real Estate....not Telecom ! Also, my skills will be far more relevant for BCMD (Banking and Capital Markets) vertical of Infosys than CSPD (communications service providers), duh !
An interesting question was put by a student about citizenship being a hurdle with some recruiters (such as Accenture). We had a senior manager from Accenture, Christopher Pesci. He addressed this question saying that in the past he had referred an Indian to Mumbai manager friend of his because Accenture does not sponsor H1 B visas.
I was shocked to know the hiring practices these companies will have in order to get talent cheap. I call this practice itself as being "cheap." They are not truly globalizing and applying Prof Dalton's principles from International Business Management course, unless Accenture becomes truly global they will still be qualified as "MNC." Extending Thomas Friedman's logic from "The World is Flat" this company will have trouble in Globalization 2.0 itself.
That's interesting. Finally CMU's associate Dean cautioned the CMU students to be modest but brag at the same time....now, that's ironical!
It started with an engaging talk with John P who gave a brief perspective of how ages have evolved. Currently, it is the Age of Individual in which ppl want to reinvent themselves. Age of new economy preceeded it and age of diversity preceeded even before it with boomers. Abilities, Interests intersect to form an avocation. Interests, Markets intersect to make a Dream. Abilities and Markets make a job. The AIM is to get the Target which lies at the intersection of Abilities, Interests, and Markets!
Now, that's insightful!
AdvanceMe Associates lady mentioned about how to make the best first impression. The Berkin Stocks case she mentioned about the guy wearing blue shirt and dressing conservatively dressing causing him to lose the job made me think about the employers I plan to apply to.
boy, I gotta get a new wardrobe. Also, Bee aint gonna help me with that :( So, it's all me ... to go and shop for my wardrobe and accessories.
In the last session, Jerome Laday, Director of HR-L'Oreal, mentioned about mentioning experiences in the format of STAR:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Ernst & Young's national recruiter Wendy Wildt guided me for doing an internship after graduation if I want to do a career switch! She was really nice in listening at the pain I had at my previous employer.
"Territorial" was the word she used for describing some top ppl in an organization who do not let employees go. Deepak Padaki, our Engagement Manager at Infosys was one such fellow. His justification was that if I have invested in you for couple of years training you to become a Telecom consultant then why should I allow your transfer to some other vertical? My rationale was ..I was in AT&T account - but I was doing Real Estate....not Telecom ! Also, my skills will be far more relevant for BCMD (Banking and Capital Markets) vertical of Infosys than CSPD (communications service providers), duh !
An interesting question was put by a student about citizenship being a hurdle with some recruiters (such as Accenture). We had a senior manager from Accenture, Christopher Pesci. He addressed this question saying that in the past he had referred an Indian to Mumbai manager friend of his because Accenture does not sponsor H1 B visas.
I was shocked to know the hiring practices these companies will have in order to get talent cheap. I call this practice itself as being "cheap." They are not truly globalizing and applying Prof Dalton's principles from International Business Management course, unless Accenture becomes truly global they will still be qualified as "MNC." Extending Thomas Friedman's logic from "The World is Flat" this company will have trouble in Globalization 2.0 itself.
That's interesting. Finally CMU's associate Dean cautioned the CMU students to be modest but brag at the same time....now, that's ironical!
Course: Options - getting pennies in front of a steam roller
"Getting pennies in front of steam-rollers"
I will never forget that expression from our Options faculty(Prof. Duanne Seppi) while referring to arbitrage activities. The prime reason being the hype around this job. There is a huge halo created around IB jobs and when I heard about it from the undergrad alums of CMU business administration group, I didn't like it at all. May be the real excitement is later.
btw, these pennies were sizeable chunks earlier in this century when FnO market had just started in India and high school passouts turned jobbers were transformed to arbitrageurs who made disporportionate income from the whole deal. With the advent of other players in the market, there are barely any opportunities left in the markets.
Professor had one more quote on modelling. At the outset of the first class, he mentioned that I am going to teach you all the wrong models !
Whoa ! You should've seen the look on everyone's faces.
He added after a pause that - however, I am going to teach you how to be an informed consumer of options for your investments and how to choose the best wrong model (what an oxymoron!)
All models are wrong because they make various assumptions and their application is based on environment variables. Hence, Ito Markov may be the best wrong model in one case and the GBM may be in some other.
btw, last class, he gave us a simulation excercise and said "Happy simulating weekend!"
I will never forget that expression from our Options faculty(Prof. Duanne Seppi) while referring to arbitrage activities. The prime reason being the hype around this job. There is a huge halo created around IB jobs and when I heard about it from the undergrad alums of CMU business administration group, I didn't like it at all. May be the real excitement is later.
btw, these pennies were sizeable chunks earlier in this century when FnO market had just started in India and high school passouts turned jobbers were transformed to arbitrageurs who made disporportionate income from the whole deal. With the advent of other players in the market, there are barely any opportunities left in the markets.
Professor had one more quote on modelling. At the outset of the first class, he mentioned that I am going to teach you all the wrong models !
Whoa ! You should've seen the look on everyone's faces.
He added after a pause that - however, I am going to teach you how to be an informed consumer of options for your investments and how to choose the best wrong model (what an oxymoron!)
All models are wrong because they make various assumptions and their application is based on environment variables. Hence, Ito Markov may be the best wrong model in one case and the GBM may be in some other.
btw, last class, he gave us a simulation excercise and said "Happy simulating weekend!"
"IT Analyst"
In the TartanTrak (MonsterTrak's CMU version), I saw a job title called "IT Analyst" by Citigroup. Most of my friends who came from India to US for their Masters without any work-ex were getting this job and hence, when I saw them in the TartanTrak, I was wondering if these are for Graduate level.
However, I read the following description and I was shocked:
The IT Analyst program is an initiative to hire full-time undergraduates specializing in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, and Computer Engineering to work on technology initiatives that support the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) businesses. During the program, IT analysts can capitalize on their programming, engineering and problem-solving abilities in a state-of-the-art technological environment. The 2-year program is designed to enhance the skills and performance of staff members recruited from college campuses. The program includes a training curriculum that focuses on the development of personal skills and business knowledge. The training enhances the performance of the analysts in their day-to-day business assignments and encourages participants to understand and support the strategic direction of the firm.
Shocked that....these ppl accepted an analyst position..well, but as students of Indian origin and without any US experience or without any experience at all, they barely have any bargaining power.
However, I read the following description and I was shocked:
The IT Analyst program is an initiative to hire full-time undergraduates specializing in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, and Computer Engineering to work on technology initiatives that support the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) businesses. During the program, IT analysts can capitalize on their programming, engineering and problem-solving abilities in a state-of-the-art technological environment. The 2-year program is designed to enhance the skills and performance of staff members recruited from college campuses. The program includes a training curriculum that focuses on the development of personal skills and business knowledge. The training enhances the performance of the analysts in their day-to-day business assignments and encourages participants to understand and support the strategic direction of the firm.
Shocked that....these ppl accepted an analyst position..well, but as students of Indian origin and without any US experience or without any experience at all, they barely have any bargaining power.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
One more blog
...Someone may call it blog-o-mania....but yeah..I have another blog for a course titled Managing Service Organizations that I have taken this mini.
I was tired of maintaining 3 blogs. However, it is a part of our curriculum.
Can you beat that ?
I will be adding a link to this blog in my links section shortly. Meanwhile, the URL is: http://www.exploreitsm.org/?q=blog/42
I was tired of maintaining 3 blogs. However, it is a part of our curriculum.
Can you beat that ?
I will be adding a link to this blog in my links section shortly. Meanwhile, the URL is: http://www.exploreitsm.org/?q=blog/42
The future is apple (contd)
Sometime back, I had posted a log by the title "The future is Apple!"
In line with the same argument, I want to update my visitors with this piece of news.
Domination - but - only of the multimedia segment! With movies on iPods and iTV as the next big thing along with IPTV, Apple will compete with other players such as 2wire who have got big business for their STBs (Set top boxes). IPTV is going to be a big business and Apple will ensure that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, they get a good chunk of it.
So, here's a thing - Jobs is not an original guy but has the ability to see the markets well and execute a project to the finish and sell his product. Gates beat him at that but Gates is out of the game now. I hope Jobs will be able to at least get over Ozzie...if not, then that's sheer lack of competence . However, I do not want to sound as if I am writing him off completely. He still remains a legend in this industry for reasons such as the flair he possesses, the effect he creates, etc.
Letsee what next he brings in.
In line with the same argument, I want to update my visitors with this piece of news.
Domination - but - only of the multimedia segment! With movies on iPods and iTV as the next big thing along with IPTV, Apple will compete with other players such as 2wire who have got big business for their STBs (Set top boxes). IPTV is going to be a big business and Apple will ensure that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, they get a good chunk of it.
So, here's a thing - Jobs is not an original guy but has the ability to see the markets well and execute a project to the finish and sell his product. Gates beat him at that but Gates is out of the game now. I hope Jobs will be able to at least get over Ozzie...if not, then that's sheer lack of competence . However, I do not want to sound as if I am writing him off completely. He still remains a legend in this industry for reasons such as the flair he possesses, the effect he creates, etc.
Letsee what next he brings in.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Biggest manipulator
Duanne Seppi, our professor for Options at Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business) , mentioned and it struck me.... There is a wealthy investor in the market - having 100s of billions of $s and manipulates markets - the government ! This was in reference to the interest rates being set by the government.
Nice one !
Nice one !
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Lalu to teach management at IIM-A
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/30iim1.htm
To be politically appropriate - I will not comment on this !
Lalu has silenced his critics with his actions :)
btw, IIM A is the most prestigious institute in India.
To be politically appropriate - I will not comment on this !
Lalu has silenced his critics with his actions :)
btw, IIM A is the most prestigious institute in India.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Course: International Business Management
Prof Robert Dalton has been awesome in his first two classes. He was ex-chief economist at Gulf Oil. Gulf Oil was taken over by Chevron in 1984 for several billion $s. Bob later on took on administration at CMU for Exec Ed and in 1991, CMU's exec ed was ranked #1 in the world.
In the first class, he took a case (he like war analogies for strategies) from 1346 when the English forces kicked French butt though they were at a severe disadvantage in terms of numbers. Later, after 10 years, English kicked French butt again. Finally, after 50 years, again French were defeated by the English. The whole saga was good since the excercises we did in class and which revolved around it gave us a different perspective of how history repeats itself.
Finally, he explained us the difference between an indigenous company serving indigenous markets, an exporter, an MNC, and a Global company. This helped me slightly while working on the three cases for yday's class.
He made a nice selection of 3 cases:
1. Philips v/s Matsushita: Philips was highly decentralized and Matsushita(Panasonic and National are the some of the brandnames from their flagship) was highly centralized. Both trying to become a global company. They have been most successful companies in the electronics arena in the 2oth century. Fairly complicated case !
2. Club Med: A services firm facing issues in light of global business.
3. BRLHardy Wines: A wine related company facing conflict during their growth face due to the its key personnel fighting it out for their own sake. This had partially fashion scenario.
The matrix provide by Bob is awesome - for most of the analysis. Each box refers to a different approach to be used for strategies. Each box has its own set of dos and donts.
In between, he was telling us stories about:
1. How a CEO, VP, etc of Gulf Oil had issues in starting the OHProjector !
2. How he and his wife had issues with French lodging where most of the stuff lined up was ultra-modern
3. How one of his super-rich friends served a chilled cheap 2-buck-a-chuck wine to his guests and they didn't realise it since it was cold and numbed their sensation.
He keeps on telling these funny anecdotes and reminds me of one of my mentors !
All in all, it was a great class.
I shall make a presentation on dos and donts in Indian business for his class.
He ended with a beautiful note:
in academic economics ceteris paribus is true .....but....
in business economics mutatis mutandis is true !
In the first class, he took a case (he like war analogies for strategies) from 1346 when the English forces kicked French butt though they were at a severe disadvantage in terms of numbers. Later, after 10 years, English kicked French butt again. Finally, after 50 years, again French were defeated by the English. The whole saga was good since the excercises we did in class and which revolved around it gave us a different perspective of how history repeats itself.
Finally, he explained us the difference between an indigenous company serving indigenous markets, an exporter, an MNC, and a Global company. This helped me slightly while working on the three cases for yday's class.
He made a nice selection of 3 cases:
1. Philips v/s Matsushita: Philips was highly decentralized and Matsushita(Panasonic and National are the some of the brandnames from their flagship) was highly centralized. Both trying to become a global company. They have been most successful companies in the electronics arena in the 2oth century. Fairly complicated case !
2. Club Med: A services firm facing issues in light of global business.
3. BRLHardy Wines: A wine related company facing conflict during their growth face due to the its key personnel fighting it out for their own sake. This had partially fashion scenario.
The matrix provide by Bob is awesome - for most of the analysis. Each box refers to a different approach to be used for strategies. Each box has its own set of dos and donts.
In between, he was telling us stories about:
1. How a CEO, VP, etc of Gulf Oil had issues in starting the OHProjector !
2. How he and his wife had issues with French lodging where most of the stuff lined up was ultra-modern
3. How one of his super-rich friends served a chilled cheap 2-buck-a-chuck wine to his guests and they didn't realise it since it was cold and numbed their sensation.
He keeps on telling these funny anecdotes and reminds me of one of my mentors !
All in all, it was a great class.
I shall make a presentation on dos and donts in Indian business for his class.
He ended with a beautiful note:
in academic economics ceteris paribus is true .....but....
in business economics mutatis mutandis is true !
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Courses
Finally, I have made up my mind and the course list for this mini looks like this:
1. Economic Analysis
2. Options
3. Decision Making under Uncertainity
4. International Business Management (awesome prof....chief economist at Gulf Oil)
5. Managing Service Org (I am planning to focus on Service Mgmt concentration and this is a pre-req for all the courses in next sem)
6. IT Project Management: I sought exemption from this but I was not given - similar to Stats case.
7. OOAD - I am thinking of dropping this.
Elementary Chinese (I will be able to talk to more than half the population of this world with knowledge of Hindi, Chinese, and English)
1. Economic Analysis
2. Options
3. Decision Making under Uncertainity
4. International Business Management (awesome prof....chief economist at Gulf Oil)
5. Managing Service Org (I am planning to focus on Service Mgmt concentration and this is a pre-req for all the courses in next sem)
6. IT Project Management: I sought exemption from this but I was not given - similar to Stats case.
7. OOAD - I am thinking of dropping this.
Elementary Chinese (I will be able to talk to more than half the population of this world with knowledge of Hindi, Chinese, and English)
Friday, September 01, 2006
Full-view downloadable pdfs - by Google books!
Google books has been around ....However, you have to check out this ground-shaking news
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
highly recommended read(or listen?)
I highly recommend reading this article to anyone interested in effective public speaking. To be a leader, talk like one focuses on 5 main points which are really good.
w.r.t. presentations, I love the way Steve Jobs and his team make it - those are awesome - simple yet effective and impactful. A lot to learn from his speeches.
w.r.t. presentations, I love the way Steve Jobs and his team make it - those are awesome - simple yet effective and impactful. A lot to learn from his speeches.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Looted!
Yes, I feel swindled!
I saw the price of the Macbook and its lesser than my Thinkpad. I was forced to buy this high-end Thinkpad when other Thinkpad's were cheaper. The T60 Thinkpad from IBM.
Moreover, IBM hasn't yet recalled its batteries. Wait till there is an explosion in the battery and when somebody sues them.
More than IBM, I am upset with the Heinz school's admission staff who forced me into this. I didn't want to buy this notebook and since I was going to put in 2k anyways, I always wanted to buy a Macbook.
Now, since I have put in 2100 bucks in this, I will have to keep this piece of junk with me for 3 years....what a shame!
I saw the price of the Macbook and its lesser than my Thinkpad. I was forced to buy this high-end Thinkpad when other Thinkpad's were cheaper. The T60 Thinkpad from IBM.
Moreover, IBM hasn't yet recalled its batteries. Wait till there is an explosion in the battery and when somebody sues them.
More than IBM, I am upset with the Heinz school's admission staff who forced me into this. I didn't want to buy this notebook and since I was going to put in 2k anyways, I always wanted to buy a Macbook.
Now, since I have put in 2100 bucks in this, I will have to keep this piece of junk with me for 3 years....what a shame!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thank you - visitors
My metrics for the blog show me fan-club throughout the world and I am glad to see that.
I want to thank you all for the same.
Except for Africa and Antartica, everyone other continent has a representation. Check out the picture below for a visual picture of the visitors to this blog.
Once again, thank you everyone!
I want to thank you all for the same.
Except for Africa and Antartica, everyone other continent has a representation. Check out the picture below for a visual picture of the visitors to this blog.
Once again, thank you everyone!
P2P copyright infringers: Beware
Check out this link to see the court ruling in Amsterdam for P2p filesharing. Interesting part is the last part of the article which makes it mandatory for the copyright owner to prove beyond reasonable doubt!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Big Blue on the move...
IBMs latest acquisition of Internet Security Systems Inc. has sent some signals in the market. Here's the news.
By far...largest in this domain, this acquisition shows how deep pockets can help bring consolidation. IBM is now hoping that being big will help ISS too. What if its assets become less useful due to the acquisition and the merger with IBM? What I mean is ...what if the employees leave due to dislike to the Big Blue's culture and loss of identity?
IBM is big and fat and many times, acquisitions do not unlock the value due to cultural differences in the companies. IBM will do the same set of activities to ISS as it did to Lotus Notes. Try to integrate its products with its own product range. Was that a success.... your guess is as good as mine.
IBM also bought MRO software and Filenet in recent past. Is IBM good at acquisitions?
Let us see what IBM buys next and what will the rivals do....any guesses ?
By far...largest in this domain, this acquisition shows how deep pockets can help bring consolidation. IBM is now hoping that being big will help ISS too. What if its assets become less useful due to the acquisition and the merger with IBM? What I mean is ...what if the employees leave due to dislike to the Big Blue's culture and loss of identity?
IBM is big and fat and many times, acquisitions do not unlock the value due to cultural differences in the companies. IBM will do the same set of activities to ISS as it did to Lotus Notes. Try to integrate its products with its own product range. Was that a success.... your guess is as good as mine.
IBM also bought MRO software and Filenet in recent past. Is IBM good at acquisitions?
Let us see what IBM buys next and what will the rivals do....any guesses ?
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The future is Apple !
Apple - not as in the dominant position ...but as a multimedia firm. They are going to be this ubiquitous player.
Jobs learnt his share of lessons after he was fired from Apple as their CEO. He bailed them out when he returned almost after 12 years.
Primary goal for ppl to switch from PC to Apple based systems will be its differentiation factors to force ppl to bear the switching costs.
Apple will try to reduce the switching costs by:
Making hardware Intel-based !
If you can't beat'em then join'em. Apple realised that very well.
Check out this presentation in World Wide Developer Conference in which Jobs and Schiller emphasize on Intel processors.
Making OS switchable !
So, while you can keep your Windows with you for the games and other applications. All you have to do is buy their OS + hardware. Apple calls this initiative as Bootcamp.
While all this is going on, Bill leaves the boat (to step back?) and gives Ray Ozzie and Steve Balmer the charge.
Apple will woo the public by:
Multimedia applications
iPod user base is huge. Adoption of iPod has given a foot in the door to Apple in the low-end market segment. Also, it has tested the waters by knowing that ppl will pay a 100-200$ extra for owning their products but not very large gaps (as was case with Macintoshes before).
Main point is that the proprietary nature of iTunes makes it easier to be manipulatable on MacOSs since they will have those type of applications.
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft decided to launch its own portable multimedia product. They will not copy the concept of iPod. However, they will provide the same set of features which Apple will try to provide.
Essentially, Jobs has seen a new market in multimedia and he is making every effort to have the knife fall in his favor this time. That will ensure that any competitor will find it heavy to go against Apple in that segment at least.
Sleek product designs
This will continue to remain their forte.
Jobs learnt his share of lessons after he was fired from Apple as their CEO. He bailed them out when he returned almost after 12 years.
Primary goal for ppl to switch from PC to Apple based systems will be its differentiation factors to force ppl to bear the switching costs.
Apple will try to reduce the switching costs by:
Making hardware Intel-based !
If you can't beat'em then join'em. Apple realised that very well.
Check out this presentation in World Wide Developer Conference in which Jobs and Schiller emphasize on Intel processors.
Making OS switchable !
So, while you can keep your Windows with you for the games and other applications. All you have to do is buy their OS + hardware. Apple calls this initiative as Bootcamp.
While all this is going on, Bill leaves the boat (to step back?) and gives Ray Ozzie and Steve Balmer the charge.
Apple will woo the public by:
Multimedia applications
iPod user base is huge. Adoption of iPod has given a foot in the door to Apple in the low-end market segment. Also, it has tested the waters by knowing that ppl will pay a 100-200$ extra for owning their products but not very large gaps (as was case with Macintoshes before).
Main point is that the proprietary nature of iTunes makes it easier to be manipulatable on MacOSs since they will have those type of applications.
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft decided to launch its own portable multimedia product. They will not copy the concept of iPod. However, they will provide the same set of features which Apple will try to provide.
Essentially, Jobs has seen a new market in multimedia and he is making every effort to have the knife fall in his favor this time. That will ensure that any competitor will find it heavy to go against Apple in that segment at least.
Sleek product designs
This will continue to remain their forte.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Technology is a girl's best friend.. !
Reuters Technology EOB report surprised me with this article. At first, I didn't believe what I read in the abstract of the article and discounted it as being one of the headline-gimmicks.
However, on reading the article I find out that: Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend. Girls gone Wired survey has some good news and some bad news !
Good news since buying a 2+carat rock for your honey wouldn't be essential anymore(if she belongs to this breed of ladies).
Bad news for those who have already bought it and their darlings are now asking for the techno-stuff.
btw, 46% women doing their own computer trouble-shooting - is that true or what ? I am not trying to be condescending here - but this was not what I practically saw - at least at my previous workplace. At my current place, I am doing my Masters in a tech-field and hence, those ladies cannot be considered as a representative set (since they are techies anyways).
However, on reading the article I find out that: Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend. Girls gone Wired survey has some good news and some bad news !
Good news since buying a 2+carat rock for your honey wouldn't be essential anymore(if she belongs to this breed of ladies).
Bad news for those who have already bought it and their darlings are now asking for the techno-stuff.
btw, 46% women doing their own computer trouble-shooting - is that true or what ? I am not trying to be condescending here - but this was not what I practically saw - at least at my previous workplace. At my current place, I am doing my Masters in a tech-field and hence, those ladies cannot be considered as a representative set (since they are techies anyways).
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