(7 votes, average: 6.43 out of 10)
Loading ...Apple iPhone finally coming to Canada
One source from the financial services industry has informed me that Rogers has finally worked out a deal with Apple Canada and yes the much heralded iPhone will be made available to Canadians later on this year.
In typical Rogers and Apple Canada fashion there is no timeline announced and there are no more details about the launch.
The source added that Apple Canada believes this will have Research in Motion shaking in its boots. I found that comment to be ludicrous because, while I can accept that Apple Canada and its customers are excited about the iPhone coming to Canada, the braintrust at RIM are not the sort of people to panic.
Lets not forget that they dominate the market here in Canada and in the U.S. The iPhone has been in the U.S. over two calendar years and it has not be able to displace or come near the Blackberry’s sales performance. According to Gartner Research, the iPhone is at 19 per cent of the market in the U.S., while RIM is at 34 plus per cent. Even the “Other” category beats iPhone by two per cent. Read the rest of this entry »
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(3 votes, average: 6 out of 10) Loading ...The clock is ticking on managed services
Here’s a tip for channel partners who want to catch onto the next big wave and exploit what will likely become a tremendous opportunity.
Think seriously about becoming a managed-services provider. But don’t think too long because the clock is ticking.
It’s no small undertaking to construct a managed service. It can take a long time. Long View Systems of Calgary, for example, took more than three years to get its managed services offering up and running. And, that company started in 2000. Today its managed services business is “through the roof,” according to Don Sottile, a vice-president at the company.
One route a VAR can take is through Ingram Micro and its Seismic offering. The distributor lets VARs resell managed services its backend infrastructure, including network operations centre (NOC) and help desk services. Read the rest of this entry »
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(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 10) Loading ...Dell Canada’s first ever channel chief is no more
Official word out of Dell is that Frank Fuser, Dell Canada’s first ever channel chief, has retired.
His retirement comes just after accepting a promotion to this post on March 7th.
I find Fuser’s retirement five weeks after being promoted to a senior position incredibly hard to believe.
One source close to the situation called Fuser’s announced retirement “strange.”
At a channel event last month many partners speculated that Fuser was not long for the job.
I wrote a blog suggesting that Fuser was in for an uphill battle because of his lack of channel experience. After I interviewed Fuser, he emailed me to ask me out to lunch. I found this strange because PR practitioners would set up these lunch meetings for executives. This is normally the case for some new to the channel or to the Canadian market. Read the rest of this entry »
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(3 votes, average: 6.33 out of 10) Loading ...Cisco’s Partner Exchange program needs trust
Networking giant Cisco Systems wants partners to come together.
They’re hoping to encourage collaboration by reseller partners with Cisco, with customers and with other partners. Collaborating with Cisco and with customers seems straightforward enough. But partner-to-partner collaboration is tricky.
Cisco last week announced the creation a portal site and program called the Partner Exchange, designed to help partners learn the fine art of partner-to-partner collaboration.
The partners with whom I spoke – both Canadian and U.S.-based – say they believe it will be difficult to collaborate with competing partners, especially in local markets or smaller geographies.
Read the rest of this entry »
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(3 votes, average: 9.33 out of 10) Loading ...Golden opportunity in the data centre
By Paolo Del Nibletto
Cisco’s latest announcement on Data Center 3.0 may look from the outset to be a lucrative opportunity for just Gold partners, but there will be an opportunity for premier and other Cisco partners.
When Edison Peres, Cisco’s VP of worldwide channels, tabulated the money opportunity for partners in data centers at US$14 billion over the next few years it got a lot of Gold partners in Canada looking to line their pockets with profits.
Remember that several of those Gold partners in Canada started out as data centre builders before moving into networking, so they have a lot of those customers already.
But I do see the premier and other Cisco partners getting involved by either partnering with these gold partners or mining their own local community for these opportunities.
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(9 votes, average: 6.56 out of 10) Loading ...Does anyone want a Linux desktop?
Dell was the first to ship PCs and notebooks with Ubuntu Linux, while Lenovo is giving Linux a whirl in the U.S. only. At the recently concluded Novell Brainshare conference, HP announced it, too, will ship PCs and notebooks with SuSe Linux.
But does anyone really care about Linux? All this activity might suggest Linux is effectively competing with Windows in the marketplace. Judging by what many in the marketplace say, Linux still continues to barely make a dent in the world of desktop OS.
Solution providers have told me for years that customers are simply not interested in switching from Windows variants over to Linux. The main reason is support. Few are trained on Linux so many partners and end users simply can’t support the platform. The Linux community like many other sectors also faces an IT worker shortfall. There aren’t enough IT people in general and certainly much fewer Linux experts.
Microsoft is hardly shaking in its boots at the news that even its top three hardware partners are offering Linux options.
Perhaps there’s an opportunity for other PC makers. Might this action by HP, Lenovo and Dell prompt Acer and Toshiba to demand better OEM pricing from Microsoft because of exclusivity to Windows? Acer and Toshiba could use a bit of a competitive advantage in the market place. What about Tier 2 vendors such as Asus, Fujitsu, Sony and MSI or even the “white label” system builder community? Should they be rewarded for exclusive Windows loyalty?
Linux often gains a foothold with customers with lean or slashed budgets. As Microsoft licensing costs increase it does prompt some to look for alternatives. But while some organizations have in the past reportedly switched to the Linux environment for the desktop, many have likewise switched back to Windows, often because they can’t find or afford the support for the OS.
Notebook and desktop makers may want to offer Linux as an option to buyers, but I really have to wonder who’s interested.
One quick hit before I go. I was happy to learn that Mary Ann Yule has been promoted to Canadian GM of CDW. She is a highly skilled executive with great passion for this industry. I have written a lot lately about local leadership and I tip my hat to CDW for recognizing that and promoting from within the subsidiary. Pete Edwards leaves CDW Canada for a position in the company’s Arizona office.
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