Many industry pundits are predicting continued strength in the consolidation in the technology industry. The master brands – those vendors offering full stack solutions – have led the charge to date, impacting middle market and emerging competitors in how they’re thinking about financing growth, optimizing sales channels and forging relevant alliances. Much of this consolidation is reactionary as product and partnership announcements and new innovations come on line. TripleTree maintains a two column scorecard of 15 tech and 15 healthcare master brands, and below we’ve summarized a random walk of occurrences from three vendors from the tech side of this ledger.
- SAP: Does new leadership bring new momentum? Consider the major acquisition of Sybase shortly after a change in leadership. While still behind Oracle’s “full stack” capabilities, SAP made a huge leap across the stack in applications (especially capabilities to mobilize) and data management.
- Google: The only threat to Apple (iPhone and iPad) dominance is next-gen smart phones. Sprint and TMobile are actively messaging around Andoid and buzzing about “iPhone killers”, but Google has miles to go in refining it platform to approach the elegance and simplicity of Apple.
- Microsoft: CEO Steve Ballmer says Microsoft is “all in” with cloud, but still the majority and revenues comes from OS and desktop applications. The channel / cannibalization concerns that confronted them with SaaS five years ago persist, and it’s hard to believe they have conjured up a new strategy to allay them with cloud. Besides, it’s in Microsoft’s interest to be all-Microsoft-all-the-time, so its unlikely they will ever offer a truly interoperable, open cloud.
Let us know what you think – in the meantime, here are a few things we’re keeping an eye on:
- Provider shortages and access concerns mount for healthcare reform – more here
- Does acquiring Palm direct HP into the tablet market? – more here
- Home health hub via Google TV? – more here
- Jeff Kaplan on HP’s restructuring – more here
Read our most recent research on Healthcare Compliance and mHealth, and if your schedule aligns, catch up with us this week at AHIP in Las Vegas.
To learn more, contact us at 952-253-5300…have a great week!