In Network World this week there's an article titled "IBM's fight over Web 2.0 will dwarf past clashes against Microsoft". The proverbial bottom line of this article is that IBM is going to flood the market with advanced products and services based on Web 2.0 technologies and then beat us to death with a marketing tsunami that will rock the worlds of Microsoft, Cisco, and everyone else who stands in their path to world domination.
We've seen IBM re-invent themselves several times and there's a lot of evidence that they can do the same thing in the Web 2.0 world ... at least on the products and services side. But is that what Web 2.0 really is?
I've been pondering the Web 2.0 market and while there are all sorts of standards, products, and services that you can point to as being typical of Web 2.0-type "stuff" what really stands out as the big emergent property of this market can be summed up by one word: "mashup."
The greatest generator of mashups so far has been Google with the whole universe of "mashapps" that rely on Google Maps. From Trulia to Twitter Google Maps have transformed the use of mapping. And that's just a single service in a universe of mashable Web service APIs!
The true nature of Web 2.0 is collaborative business processes that integrate to create hyper-applications. Different vendors providing services based on their core expertise that are mashed with other services from other expert service providers to create applications that benefit from the knowledge of legions of experts not from just one small pool of programmers.
The real test of IBM's products and services will be how nicely they can play with other service providers and product developers. If IBM does get this aspect of their Web 2.0 strategy in place and working they could indeed dominate the market. Microsoft, Cisco: Are you ready to play too?
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Web 2.0
Mr Gibbs, you have nailed the Web 2.0 issue precisely. Yep, MASHUPS are the most prominent definition of Web 2.0, regardless what some advertising rhetoric might say. And for mashups to work, Web 2.0 apps must work and play well with others. IBM will be one of the dominant players, make no mistake about that. Will they be #1? Well, perhaps they will re-think the escalating level of complexity in some of their products, if they want a #1 spot. Also, IBM must rush products to market ahead of the competition. That means 'buggy' products will be released, because IBM will not repeat their incredible Windows-OS2 errors. They will go to market first, bugs and all. OS2 and OS2 Warp were great operating systems - and their market share today demonstrates what 'getting to market late' can do to a fine product, and be assured IBM learned their lesson well. It should be fun to watch the big guys duke it out. But sadly, it means new floods of buggy, 'rushed to market' products for the users. Of course, there is always the possibility of Corporate 'partnership' to capture the market - much the same way Microsoft and IBM co-developed Windows/OS2. No question what that partnersip did for Microsoft. Perhaps we can be entertained by IBM/Cisco going head to head with Microsoft/Google. I quietly chortle at the thought.