In the year to two to come, aside from the proliferation of apps and technullities, two tendencies will be driving business: 1) The development, marketing and 'enhancement' of cloud computing services, and 2) the bundling of as many services as may be interrelated (even remotely) by large providers and territorial goliaths. The reasons for these strategic and non-technological propensities will be two-fold:
1) To control the customer and the the customer's critical data, to acquire marketshare from multiple angles and points of market entry, and to eliminate atomistic and marginal participants in these market arenas; and
2) To increase dependency on only a small number of major service providers, and to gain better control over pricing through the camouflage that bundling has traditionally afforded such notable advocates as cable companies and certain information and communications hardware and software providers.
This does not bode well for small business, and it does not bode at all well for the end consumers who are increasingly become the subject of corporate victimization.
Expect a regulatory backlash within two years or so.
On a positive note, in the interest of growing and protecting your business, you might just consider utilizing these same strategies in your business direction and development plans. They do work, even for small- to medium-sized companies. There is much to be said for horizontal and vertical integration, as well as for diversification of revenue sources.
Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]
for InfoSphere Business Alerts And Intelligence.
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