Barnes & Nobles' Nookcolor

Has anyone else seen this? [Nookcolor] This week, Barnes & Noble unveiled a counterattack on Amazon's unmistakable dominance of the e-reader market. Barnes & Noble is desperate to capture a piece of the ever growing e-reader market before they are rendered irrelevant in the changing book market. I found this to be interesting especially in light of previous class discussions regarding a firm's ability to adapt to the market. It seems that BN knows that it has to change something and be flexible before it suffers the same fate as Blockbuster did against RedBox. It will be interesting to see whether or not this new approach will be able to compete with Amazon's Kindle. With some additional features and a snazzy color high def screen, it is intriguing if nothing else.

Outsourcing: a double edged sword

The potential benefits of outsourcing can be deceivingly alluring, and often cause organizations to rush into a relationship that proves to hurt the company more than help it. In this article [NAVY]  from August 2008, an interesting side of outsourcing is exposed as it discusses the US Navy's decision to outsource its desktop system to EDS, a Texas-based vendor. Beating out IBM to earn the contract, EDS was thrilled to earn such a significant deal. However, it soon became obvious that the company was ill-equipped to make good on the expectations that the Navy had for it. In essence, EDS bit off more than it could chew and it would up being horrible for both parties involved.

The article brings to light two important precautions that must be made before outsourcing: careful analysis and knowing the capabilities of the potential company. Every business has an agenda and has goals, and as a manager is important to understand your own business's goals as well as the goals as the potential vendor. EDS was anxious to score such a big contract and made promises and claims in order to get the deal with the Navy. In the end, the company was unable to deliver and put the Navy in a bind. Outsourcing is risky business, and it is critical that a company has trust and confidence in its vendors and that the vendors have proven track records that indicate they will be able to fulfill your needs adequately.

Hollywood Reinforces the Significance Mobile Technology

[CNN]

In the discussion on Friday, we talked about mobility and social networking as keys to the future. This article on CNN talks about Hollywood's role in reinforcing that notion. Hollywood has always played an important role in both driving and displaying current trends in American culture. In the recent movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," the characters are seen texting and facebooking on their portable devices. It's little things screenshots like these that push the market subconsciously toward a more mobile way of social networking. The article goes on to talk about 4 ways that technology informs and move television: driving storylines, advertising products (affecting the market and reinforcing tech impact), making us laugh, and reflecting a period. As technology continues to become a bigger and bigger part of our lives, we will continue to see these familiar products and references in Hollywood in increasing amounts.