It’s been a big month for both GigaOM and GigaOM Pro – in addition to conquering jetlag and launching a successful Structure:Europe conference in Amsterdam last, we also rolled out our third-quarter wrap-ups, which track some of the most exciting trends and disruptions across the five areas that GigaOM Pro covers: cloud, mobile, social, connected consumer, and cleantech. And of course, this week, all eyes were on the tablet market, as Apple and Microsoft each hosted splashy events for their newest batch of gadgets. Over on GigaOM Pro, our analysts are looking beyond the week’s news and taking the long view on the mobile and cloud markets.
Note: GigaOM Pro is a subscription-based research service offering in-depth, timely analysis of developing trends and technologies. Visit pro.gigaom.com to learn more about it.
Cloud: Helix Nebula and the future of Europe’s cloud
Paul Miller
CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the institution that oversees the Large Hadron Collider (among many other things) produces one petabyte of data per second – literally, really really big data. Pro analyst Paul Miller takes a look at the the Helix Nebula project, a public/private cloud infrastructure partnership between CERN and the European Space Agency and a host of tech and big data companies including CloudSigma, Atos, And SAP. What resulted could lay the groundwork for the expansion of public and private clouds in Europe, and Miller provides analysis and projections for the near-term implications of this project.
Mobile: Will Microsoft’s restrictions with Office doom every Windows RT tablet?
Colin Gibbs
Just two days after Apple announced the long-awaited iPad mini, Microsoft jumped into the tablet market as well, with its Windows RT-powered Surface tablet. The pricey ($ 499) device is already attracting mixed reviews, but Colin Gibbs highlights one of the most glaring barriers to wide-scale adoption of Microsoft’s tablet line in the enterprise market: businesses can’t use Office applications unless they have an additional license for other Office properties. Will this licensing restriction put a major kink in Microsoft’s hopes to market the Surface tablet as an alternative to laptops?
Quarterly Wrap-ups
Each quarter, GigaOM Pro analysts take a close look at the big events – mergers, acquisitions, executive transitions, IPOs – from the past three months and give a glimpse into trends, technologies, and companies to watch in the near future. Here’s what caught the attention of our analysts this time around, and what they’ll be looking for in the near-term future:
- Cleantech: The third quarter saw ups and downs for Tesla and Zipcar, while China’s solar companies faced many challenges.
- Mobile: Apple made record sales for its iPhone 5, but also grabbed some controversial headlines about its new mapping product.
- Cloud: The usual suspects, Amazon and VMware, made significant announcements in cloud in the third quarter, while Hadoop remains the talk of the town in big data.
- Connected Consumer: New digital video and second-stream platforms put the traditional media business in flux.
- Social: After their high-profile IPOs, Zynga, Groupon, and Facebook are raising fundamental questions about their growth and business models.
