Disruptive Technology in the Video Game Industry

When one hears the term Video game industry behemoths like Microsoft Sony and Nintendo come up.  Three of the most recgonised and used platform manufacturers.  That model is currently be challenged.  A small company called "OnLive  Inc." is challenging the decades old industry method of delivery.  Traditionally, a user would purchase the proprietary hardware and seperately purchase software.  This involves visiting retail stores or (more recently) ordering these pieces online.  OnLive takes inspirations from the music and video indsutry and is proposing to eliminate the distribution system all together.  This has the potential to drastically reduce costs if software is all delivered online.  Furthermore, video rendering will be done in a cloud sourced manner meaning that any upgrades will be done at a centralized system and be immediately availble to all users.  Customers save by purchasing a $99 controler that provides access to the online library and they also save on distribution costs for titles.  Upgrades to platforms (think xbox vs xbox 360) are seemless and cost free.  It's worked for netflix and itunes and I think in the next five years we'll see the video game industry undergo a similar "e-transformation" to cloud sourced solutions.

Walmart penetrating ecommerce

Walmart is usually known for it's massive inventories of inexpensive products with little to no customer support. They've taken it just one more step further by promoting its ebusiness. They are competing against e-giants such as amazon.com. They are eliminating shipping from 60,000 items. The interesting thing is that the majority of these items are electronics.
"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is clearly going for the jugular in the holiday retailing fight. It announced Thursday that it will offer free shipping on nearly 60,000 online items — with no minimum purchase requirement." Walmart
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India's Outsourcing industry uses U.S. government mandates for funding

I found a Wall Street Journal article discussing how India's outsourcing the new government mandate that illuminated a trend for a new source of outsourcing.  The U.S. is moving to electronic medical records.  The previous method of patient history was as you all know the "patient chart" literally a few pieces of paper in a folder.  It is time to update those to easily transferable electronic records.  India believes much of this workload will be outsourced due to the laborious task involved.  Moreover, the U.S. Government has mandated this change and will actually give hospitals money to accomplish it.  So, if you follow the flow of cash, the U.S. Government could be seen as sponsoring India's outsourcing industry.  Should this work be done in the U.S?  How do you feel about this?

Outsourcing - Harder workers and Better results vs. American Protectionism and the "Current State of Unemployment"

President Obama recently visited India and did not visit the cities that President Bush did, namely the IT hubs Bangalore and Hyderabad. Obama visits India Furthermore, in a related article, India's National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda rebutted arguments that India robbed American jobs by stating that outsourcing job training to India could reduce costs to American companies while retaining American workers.  I believe that emotions are running high with the current level of unemployment and that President Obama is cognoscente of this fact.  That being said, I also believe both fiscally and economically that jobs should go to the hardest workers, in this instance, India's.  I'm saying "the current state of unemployment" as a tongue in cheek phrase.  I for one believe that many of America's unemployed and disinterested workers simply refused to do real work.  Having worked in the agricultural industry and worked night shifts cleaning warehouses, I understand the frustrations that many of American workers have.  However i do not agree that unemployment is a better alternative to labor intensive jobs.  That, I attribute to a bloated sense of  entitlement that only unemployment checks can bring.  Americans have high standards of living and low job skills, whilst many of India's workers have comparably lower standards of living to American workers with those same high job skills.  For a company, employing those who will yield the greatest value for the lowest pay is fiscally sound.  The left has never settled with this fact but neither have they settled with progress in economic terms.  I believe that Obama has found himself stuck in between a corner and a rock in this instance.  He has realized for the first time that America's workers are spoiled and that India's workers have much to offer.  Whether Obama will allow those who wish to contribute to America or not is his choice and from a liberal point of view he should, he is a descendent of immigrants and one would think he'd retain that perspective.  For the time period, it does not look like he wishes to lose more American jobs to overseas competition and I find it highly ironic for someone in his position to take the stance he is.  

Outsourcing from the other side

In 2008, I completed a summer internship in Hyderabad, India with a pharmaceutical company called Dr. Reddy's. In my free time, I wanted to learn more about the working culture of Indian people my age.  I had one idea from my internship but, I wanted to learn more about outsourcing as well.  So, I read a book called one night @ the call center by Chetan Bhagat. The book is 289 pages long and details out the events of one night at the Connexions Call Center in Delhi, India.  Through the book, I got a glimpse of what outsourcing is like. We see it as a cheap(er) alternative than paying someone stateside to do the same job, they saw it as just a job.  That job is starting to grow wings.  Due to a unique economic situation IT outsourcing to India is getting more expensive. It is a prime example of the digital economy flattening the world. Companies are looking for the best employees and paying more to get them.  We're seeing a fundamental change in the industry structure as it moves away from the low-cost model.  I can't predict what this will do to the industry, but I fear it could dampen the persona of India as a destination for outsourcing.  That being said, I am happy to hear that call center employees are getting paid more, I'm sure everyone has a story about a service call, hopefully it's about to get better!

P.S. A shout out to Pslaw he also references these premium call center employees as seen in "outsourced".


The Pricey Side of India's Low-Cost Outsourcing 

The handshake: Its the real thing.

Yahoo Executives Departure
Yahoo has recently seen a mass exodus of top level employees.  It presents an opportunity for a shift in power with the internet search giant.  The unique thing about this is the competitive nature of the company that caused a top level employee to leave her job.  Ms. Schneider secured a deal for Yahoo in 2006 selling newspaper ads.  Her performance didn't meet expectations so she is leaving the company.  What i read into this is that Ms. Schneider is making money for Yahoo, but all I'm hearing is "not good enough" and "she needs to go".  I realize that IT companies may not need personnel that possess above average "people skills" but i do think that securing a major contract for a company is valuable.  It qualifies as an asset for the company and assets are what keep the company moving forward.  My point in all of this is that sometimes people get wrapped up in thinking that IT is the future and that businesses will forever be changed with newer and more efficient business processes.  I must stop them and remind them that human to human interaction is unparalleled and will never be able to be reproduced by technology.  Ms. Schneider was a valuable asset that Yahoo may or may not have been wise in letting go, but the real nugget of truth here is in recognizing that IT would never have come about without the human capital necessary to create it.  So all you entrepreneurs and business people go and utilize IT to its fullest potential but never, never forget that there is nothing that can replace a handshake over a good business deal simply put, it's the real thing.

Finally, some real action being taken against the spam epidemic

Google Sues 'Rogue' Pharmacies We've all seen spam, mail order medicines on the cheap etc... Finally Google is stepping up to the plate and going toe to toe with these pests of cyberspace.  There is much debate on censorship on the internet and I believe we've yet to see to what extent that goes.  Just looking at the regulation of TV and Films i would suggest it is a reasonable suggestion that the internet will face something similar in the coming years.  Regardless of how or if it happens, at least we have Google on our side!