More Validation for Our Battle of Tech Titans Prediction

Earlier this year, we predicted that a continuing story line in 2011 would be: The continuing battle among tech giants: Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Cisco vs. EMC vs. HP vs. Oracle vs. SAP. (See our blog post: Birnbach Communications' Top Predictions for 2011, The Top 12 Business & Technology Stories, Part IV.)


The latest evidence came from Google's purchase of patents from IBM, which has been cast as "So, Is It Google & IBM vs. Oracle?"

We think the clash of the tech titans will continue to be an ongoing story line for some time in the future.

Also, we will point out that back in Jan. we missed a big story of the moment: the phone hacking scandal that continues to ripple through the News Corp. empire. Well, can't get them all.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek Validates Another of Our Predictions

In its article, "Hewlett-Packard Hopes to End the Soap Opera" (which appeared in the printed edition as "HP Cancels the Board and the Beautiful"), Bloomberg BusinessWeek validated our prediction that the business media would continue to focus on the battle of the tech giants.

Here's the explanation for the continuing battle among a decreasing number of players (that are increasing in size):

In the 1990s, enterprise computing companies including HP, Oracle, EMC (EMC), and Cisco Systems (CSCO) were content to make billions in their distinct niches. Those lines are now blurring. HP is stepping on Cisco's networking turf through its acquisition of 3Com. Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems threatens HP's line of servers and storage systems. Cisco has started selling servers that compete with gear made by HP and Oracle.

These companies sense the approach of an inflection point as business customers make the transition from older technologies to the new era of cloud computing, where software applications run in data centers and connect to PCs over the Internet. To take advantage of the cloud, businesses must upgrade to newer, faster equipment and applications. HP and its competitors are vying to be full-service suppliers that can fulfill all of a customer's cloud computing needs.

That's an excellent explanation for what's happening among tech giants, and why.

Two years ago, we made the prediction that the battle of the tech giants would generate a fair share of business media coverage, and we've reiterated that among this year's predictions. This is a story that's not going away.

But, for what it's worth, I liked the headline of the print edition of the story better.

Forbes Validate Prediction #5 (Again) with Cover Story about H-P & Its the Battle of the Tech Titans

It sounds like a book my kids like: Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse or Hewlett-Packard and the Plan to Win the Battle of the Tech Titans.

Ok, so the latter title is a bit long.

But in writing about the "The Battle of the Tech Titans," in its April 12th issue, Forbes wrote about another story that we said would generate a lot of coverage in 2010: Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft and EMC vs. HP vs. Oracle vs. IBM.

It's the second time that Forbes has written a story from our list of the 12 top stories in 2010: Prediction #5: The Top Dozen Business & Technology Stories in 2010 Will Include... Just a few weeks ago, Forbes wrote about 3-D TVs, too. (Forbes & Times Validate Prediction #5 by Writing about 3-D TV.)

Of course, they've written about the iPad, but we won't toot our horn too loudly about predicting that story angle; that was a given.

Let us know if you think there are other story angles we missed, that should be included in our list.

MarketWatch Validates Our Prediction on Top Media Stories in 2010

Another validation of our prediction of the top media stories that "reporters are sure to be working on this year.

First was the Wall St. Journal, which validated (as reported here yesterday) our pick that the media would cover competition between Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft and EMC vs. H-P vs. Oracle

Now MarketWatch (also owned by the WSJ), which wrote, "H-P, Cisco face-off highlights rival CEOs' contrasting styles; New rivalry pits an operations maestro against a charismatic salesman."

According to MarketWatch's Benjamin Pimentel:

"The rivalry (between H-P and Cisco) is emerging in a time of shifting battle lines in the corporate tech market. H-P and Cisco face other competitors, including IBM and Oracle Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!orcl/quotes/nls/orcl (ORCL 25.44, -0.03, -0.12%) , which recently bought server giant Sun Microsystems.

"Still, the H-P-Cisco showdown has drawn most of the attention."

Except, in our opinion, for the battle between Google and Apple. Oh, and Google and everyone else.

WSJ Validates Our Prediction on Top Media Stories in 2010

Earlier this year. we issued a dozen predictions, and have seen a number of them quickly validated.

One of the predictions listed what we think will be top media stories that "reporters are sure to be working on this year (though not necessarily in the order)" we presented them.

We picked Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft and EMC vs. H-P vs. Oracle -- shorthand for intense competition across a range of traditional and new battleground technologies. For example, Google Android and Nexus One vs. Apple's iPhone.

In yesterday's Wall St. Journal, Ben Worthen wrote, "Gap Widens Between Tech Richest and the Rest," making the point that, "Over the past two years, Apple Inc., Oracle Corp., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and six other large tech companies have generated $68.5 billion in new cash, compared with just $13.5 billion for the other 65 tech companies in the S&P 500 Index combined, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data provided by Capital IQ."

It's an interesting article that shows that smaller companies are facing not only competition from the big players based on technology but also based on the structure of their operations and acquisitions.

Prediction #5: The Top Dozen Business & Technology Stories in 2010 Will Include...

Of course, there will be stories that we have not identified that could generate significant coverage in 2010. But based on what we know now, here's a list of some of the stories reporters are sure to be working on this year (though not necessarily in this order):

1. The economy, including the recovery, the housing market, auto industry and the "new normal."
   
2. The freelancing of the US workforce -- or how we'll all be contractors or "perma-temps" in the future (especially given the jobless nature of the recovery).
3. Apple's iPad and the future of mobile computing and Apple's iPads vs. cellphones vs. Kindle and other e-readers.
4. Cloud computing and virtualization -- and yes, we know: they're not the same thing.
5. Health care reform.
6. Regulations.
7. Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft and EMC vs. HP vs. Oracle.
8. 3-D TVs.
9. The state of the media, especially print media and advertising, online-only business models and online subscriptions.
10. Twitter's business model.
11. Location-based services and behavioral targeting by advertisers.
12. Online privacy as social media, behavioral targeting, location-based services and hackers combine to make it easy for others to access personal information.

Please note: This is not to exclude other topics we've included in our 2010 predictions.

Twittering Interns: How do you build awareness on social media and protect your brand?

According to the current issue of Fortune, a number of high profile companies have hired interns whose job is to be brand ambassadors on Twitter.

Part of that makes sense. Although I've seen demographic data that shows that the largest percentage of people using Twitter are in their 3os and 40s, but clearly college kids "get" social media easier than the rest of us.

But it's a bit concerning, I'd think, to put control of your brand in the hands of someone who understands the technology but might not understand the brand's heritage.

According to the Fortune article, "Summer Twittering," HP's CTO will let two interns live in his house next summer -- for the third year. HP says this lets it understand its younger consumers." Um, ever hear of focus groups, HP? This sounds more like the premise for an MTV reality program, "The Nerds Next Door."

The three other companies cited in the Fortune article -- Butterfinger, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns -- are consumer brands much more than HP is. And their "funterns" (Butterfiner), "twintern" (Pizza Hut) and, um, intern (apparently Papa Johns doesn't give its internship program a cutsey, possibly demeaning term) actually can post some success.

• The Pizza Hut twintern "started tweeting about pizza rolls in June and quadrupled the company's followers to more than 14,000," Fortune reported.
  
• Meanwhile, interns at Papa Johns ("Pinterns"?) blogged, tweeted, and shot video all summer. The company now has more than 300,000 Facebook fans."

Yet, what happens when those PaJinterns go back to school in the fall? Who will maintain the brand's presence in social media from Sept. trhough June?

More than that, I wonder since the interns at Papa Johns ("PaJinterns"?) spent real money shooting video, what kind of quality controls Papa Johns put in place to protect the brand's image.

Look, using interns on social media can make sense, but social media is a channel thought which to engage with customers. But a brand is a major asset for a company. Instead, I think, companies should train their brand management teams on social media so that they can make sure the social media activities present a consistent, accurate brand experience.

That consistency is one of the reasons ESPN, which has been involved with social networking for "a long time" (could mean more than 12 months) issued new guidelines for its staff regarding what they can or can't do on social media.

According to the New York Times, "ESPN Limits Social Networking," these guidelines say "that on-air talent, reporters and writers are prohibited from having sports-related blogs or Web sites and that they will need a supervisor’s approval to discuss sports on any social networking sites. They will also be restricted from discussing internal policies or detailing how stories are “reported, written, edited or produced.”

Why implement these guidelines? According to the Times article, “The first and only priority is to serve ESPN-sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content.”

Presumably, on-air talent, reporters and writers are familiar with the ESPN brand -- and even they're not allowed to use social media without a supervisor's permission.

So the question remains: who should companies put in charge of their social media presence? How can they ensure they balance that with protecting the brand attributes?

Companies will have to figure that out.