My colleague Larry Dignan over at ZDNet wrote that SAP is now in a game in which it has to rebuild trust and innovation.

In place of Apotheker, SAP appointed two co-CEOs: Bill McDermott, head of sales, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development. Dignan asked the obvious question about these two:

“Are McDermott and Snabe the revolutionaries that will rip up the old enterprise software playbook and cannibalize their existing businesses? Probably not. SAP needs a rethink and has the funds to endure one. The big question is whether the will is there to make it happen.”

So I’d like to throw this topic out to the community, since I know we have a lot of TechRepublic members who are using SAP, and ask whether you think these leadership changes at SAP will affect your plans for using SAP software. Please answer the poll and jump into the discussion thread below.

You can watch the video or read the full text of this episode below the video window.

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What is WAN acceleration?

Well, the first thing to realize is that what we’re going to call WAN acceleration in this episode is referred to by several different terms in the industry. You’ll hear different vendors call it things like WAN optimization, Application Acceleration, and Bandwidth Acceleration. Cisco even refers to it as Wide Area Application Services, or WAAS.

My favorite term for it is WAN caching. Of course, no one in the industry actually calls it that, but that’s the crux of what’s going on here.

WAN acceleration can drastically improve the speed of file transfers and the performance of many applications for your branch offices and remote workers. And since at least half, and by some estimates up to two-thirds, of all workers are located OUTSIDE the company’s central office, this can be a big win.

How does it work?

WAN acceleration involves placing an appliance between your WAN router and your servers at the headquarters or primary data center and then another appliance in the same spot at each of the branch offices. The remote appliances then cache the large files that get sent repeatedly over the WAN and only replicate the small changes to the files. The appliances also do some compression and make some tweaks to optimize the networking protocols.

The result is that most files and applications will perform about five to ten times faster, and in some cases even up to 100 times faster. That will make employees much happier and more productive. The other benefit is that WAN acceleration can decrease WAN usage by up to 60-90%. That’s where you’ll see the ROI, because in many cases it can reduce the amount of bandwidth you’ll need to purchase at some branch offices.

What’s the catch?

The best part of WAN acceleration is that you can install these appliances without disrupting your current network and you’ll immediately start seeing the benefits after the appliance caches the first file transfer. However, WAN acceleration will NOT speed up connection-sensitive applications such as video conferencing, Voice over IP, or real-time collaboration.

You may also wonder how WAN acceleration will affect road warriors and telecommuters who aren’t located in a branch office. The good news is that many of the WAN acceleration vendors also offer software solutions that can be installed on laptops and PCs and provide most of the same benefits.

Speaking of vendors, the companies to watch in this space are WAN acceleration specialists Riverbed and Blue Coat and networking giants Cisco and Juniper.

All in all, WAN acceleration can have a big impact on file transfers, Microsoft Exchange, corporate databases, and many business-specific applications that rely on static files.

On February 3, TechRepublic polled its 100-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Is there a business case to be made for the iPad and other slate PCs?” The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, came through with seven “Yes” votes and five “No” votes.

TechRepublic’s CIO Jury is based on the original CIO Jury concept developed by Silicon.com, where you can find lively opinions from IT leaders based in the UK. Silicon.com’s CIO Jury held its own vote on the iPad as a business tool.

Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College, said, “Yes, there is a business case which can be made for iPad or other convenient, easy to use tablet computers. The iPod Touch /iPad is instant on, instant off, and instant load. This aspect alone makes a compelling business case. Time is money. Though I’m not sure if that would be considered a function of tablet per se. It is more a function of iPhone operating system and multi-touch user interface, push one button, touch one icon. App loads and performs flawlessly. All apps (a.k.a., software) have a standardized look and feel… Elegant, functional, revolutionary.”

Mitchell Gibbs, Vice President of Services at Advocate Charitable Foundation, said, “While I’m not sold on the iPad - too limited in functionality - the form factor has a lot of potential, especially in vertical markets like healthcare. We currently have tablet PCs in active use and making them lighter, faster, with better battery life is only going to drive the business case.”

Others agreed that health care IT is a clear target for this form factor. Jay Rollins, Vice President of IT for Trilogy Health Services, said, “[It's] still early, but in healthcare, iPads would be great for electronic charting applications. No need for in-room kiosks, and the price point is pretty good as well.”

Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating, said “For mobile employees there is certainly a case for it. Hospitals and their tablets have proven the concept.”

Lisa Moorehead, Director of IT for MA Dept of Public Utilities, said, “Slate PCs are the latest tech toy. The screens break and get damaged too easily. I can see some benefit in a hospital campus environment for reading x-rays, diagrams, etc. but, not unless the screens can be hardened.”

Other CIO Jury members were also concerned about the durability of the iPad. “They will have to be much more rugged then they are now,” said David Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group.

Several CIOs expressed skepticism about whether slates would have enough power and connectivity to be effective. “Until the business workforce becomes mobile and the slates develop a natural user interface that is truly usable, and have the horsepower/connectivity to run applications required for business users to function, there will be little need other than as a ‘curiosity’ or ‘toy,’” said Michael Woodford, Executive Director of IT for USANA Health Sciences, Inc.

Joel Robertson, Director of IT for King College in Bristol, TN, has a problem with the iPad specifically. “Yes for the slate but not for the iPad. The incompatibility with non-Apple apps and the lack of built in expansion ports would prevent us from considering the iPad.”

Others doubted the short-term effects but still saw potential. David Wilson, Director of IT for VectorCSP, said “I believe that the immediate impact will be small, but the possibility of using these as e-book / document readers alone is enough to intrigue me.”

Delano Gordon, CIO of Roofing Supply Group in Dallas, Texas, said, “In our case, I can see an immediate use for board meetings.”

TechRepublic’s CIO Jury on this topic was:

1. Chuck Codling, Director of Infrastructure for Rocky Brands, Inc.
2. David Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group
3. Mark Westhoff, Director of IT for Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District
4. Lisa Moorehead, Director of IT for MA Dept of Public Utilities
5. Randy Krzyston, Director of IT for Thomas Jefferson School of Law
6. Mike Woodford, Executive Director of IT for USANA Health Sciences, Inc.
7. Chris Brown, Vice President of Technology for Big Splash Web Design
8. Michael Stoyanovich, CIO of BeneSys
9. Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating
10. Jerry Justice, IT Director of SS&G Financial Services
11. Mitchell Gibbs, Vice President of Services at Advocate Charitable Foundation
12. John Gracyalny, Director of IT for SafeAmerica Credit Union

Would you like to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury and have your say in the hottest issues for IT departments? If you are a CIO, CTO, IT director or equivalent at a large or small company in the private or public sector and you want to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury pool, drop us a line.

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan.

You can play this 19-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Download the MP3 file

If you enjoy this podcast, please go to to our iTunes page to rate it and leave a short review.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• Obama’s $3.8 trillion proposed budget: Parsing the tech priorities (ZDNet)
• Cyber Challenge tests nation’s top hackers (CNN)
• Chinese government: Don’t blame us for cyber attacks (ZDNet)

That turned out to be a false prophesy. Microsoft’s tablet never attracted a mass audience, although it has gained some niche adoption in industries such as health care, field service, and hospitality.

However, the Apple iPad and the new breed of slate computers that are hitting the market in 2010 are looking to revive the tablet concept. They are doing it with a lighter, thinner form factor that uses a touch-based interface rather than pen computing.

It’s way too early to predict whether the new tablets will be successful, but it’s easy to imagine some of the usage scenarios for them in the business world. Here are five to consider:

5. Replace 200-page business documents

Large business documents waste a lot of paper. Most of these tend to be legal documents that people never read from cover-to-cover, but when you have meetings to discuss any kind of major business deal the piles of paper can quickly get out of hand.

While some of these types of documents have already moved to PDF, that requires people to bring a laptop into the meeting to read the PDF. That can sometimes stifle the intimacy of the meeting. Slate computers that can lay flat on the table could be more conducive to an open discussion. There’s also a security implication. If a company has sensitive documents that it wants to share with a potential partner, but doesn’t want to email the documents, a company-owned slate computer could be used to display the big documents for guests to flip through, but all the data on the slate would remain in company hands.

4. Business reading and audiobooks for road warriors

Frequent business travelers often have a briefcase full of newspapers, magazines, and books that they want to catch up during a trip. Plus, they also usually carry on iPod with a few audiobooks and/or podcasts on it. The new tablet computers could offer the opportunity to consolidate this media experience into a single device, if newspapers follow the lead of The New York Times and magazines follow the lead of Sports Illustrated. Of course, the digitization process is already in full swing for books, with ebook apps for Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Apple’s iBookstore.

3. “Back of the Napkin” sketches

With his “Back of the Napkin” concept, Dan Roam has successfully convinced a lot of companies and professionals to draw simple pictures to help solve problems and sell ideas. However, integrating these pictures into standard business processes and communications isn’t always as simple as it should be. It’s easy to draw these pictures on a whiteboard, but then you have to take a picture of the whiteboard if you want to circulate it. With built-in drawing tools like the ones in the iPad, it’s about to get a lot easier to quickly draw simple pictures and circulate them digitally.

2. Small-scale presentations

While projectors and slide presentations have their place - especially for large meetings - there is also the opportunity to bring those same types of powerful visuals to smaller meetings, even as small as 1-on-1s. With a slate computer in hand, an employee could go to another employee’s office and quickly show off a PowerPoint file, a  Back of the Napkin sketch, a set of images, or several product mockups on a dev server. This kind of show-and-tell could streamline idea-sharing and amp up innovation. While all of this is possible with a laptop, the slim form factor of slates lend themselves to better portability and show-and-tell.

1. Conference room computing

One of the common behaviors in many of today’s corporate conference rooms is to come in, sit down, and lay down your smartphone on the table. Smartphones have become our way to stay connected, send short messages, and look up information while in the middle of a meeting. The one thing you can’t really do with a smartphone is to easily share any information you found with the rest of the people in the meeting, because the smartphones screens are so small.

That’s why slate computers could become the conference room PCs of choice. People could use them to access documents, emails, images, and illustrations needed for the meeting. A presenter could send a PowerPoint file before a meeting and attendees could access the PPT from their personal slates during the meeting, and make their own notes on it. And, employees in the meeting could share visuals with the rest of the people in the meeting just by pulling up the data on-screen and then flipping the slate around.

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan. This is a special episode, covering the Apple iPad announcement. Larry was busy writing his analysis of the iPad so I had two special guests: ZDNet editor Andrew Nusca and TechRepublic editor Bill Detwiler.

You can play this 23-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Download the MP3 file

If you enjoy this podcast, please go to to our iTunes page to rate it and leave a short review.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• Meet the iPad: Apple goes aggressive; $499 lowest price point (ZDNet)
• Apple introduces the iPad (TechRepublic)
• Apple tablet: It’s an iPad (ZDNet)
• The Tale of Steve Jobs and the Five Dragons (TechRepublic)
• Apple’s iPad: A year to gain steam and breakout in 2011? (ZDNet)

[video=387489 autoplay=false]

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan.

You can play this 19-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Download the MP3 file

If you enjoy this podcast, please go to to our iTunes page to rate it and leave a short review.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• Intel: Strong quarter expected amid PC unit growth (ZDNet)
• Intel shines: ‘We have seen a return of consumer demand’ (ZDNet)
• IDC: PC shipments roared back in the fourth quarter (ZDNet)

So, it seems appropriate to look back on the sometimes-thorny path Jobs has taken, as well as the four dragons that he has slain. And, of course, we’ll look at the new dragon that Jobs is hunting.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

The myth of Steve

Jobs burst on the scene in the late 1970s as the boy leader who became the evangelist of the personal computer revolution. In 1984, he led the team at Apple that brought the graphical user interface to the masses with the Macintosh.

Then, just as quickly as he had burst upon the business world, his world imploded. In a failed struggle for power and control at Apple, he got kicked out of his own company in 1985 and went into exile. He was a rich has-been by the age of 30.

Over the following decade, his next two companies — NeXT Computer (which he founded) and Pixar Animation (which he bought from George Lucas) - quietly made some important breakthroughs in computing but struggled financially and started bleeding away the $100 million fortune that Jobs had made at Apple.

Jobs launched a coup to reclaim his white knight status in the mid-1990s. His first bit of redemption came with Pixar in 1995 when Toy Story became the highest grossing animated feature of all time and Pixar rode that acclaim to a very successful IPO, orchestrated by Jobs himself. Once the IPO launched, it instantly turned Jobs into a billionaire.

His next bit of redemption was even sweeter. At the end of 1996, a badly-struggling Apple decided to purchase NeXT to help reinvent itself as a technology innovator. Jobs initially joined Apple as an advisor as part of the NeXT deal, but he quickly convinced the Apple board to get rid of its leader, Gil Amelio. As a result, Jobs was thrust into the role of “interim CEO” and company savior.

What happened next was a series of conquests that far exceeded anyone’s expectations and returned Apple to the role of technology superpower. These conquests also anointed Steve Jobs with the reputation of being a mix between warrior and magician.

Dragon #1: The Macintosh

When Jobs returned, Apple was in such bad shape that he wasn’t even sure it was salvageable - and industry analysts shared his skepticism. The company’s finances were in the toilet, the product roadmap was a mess, and the Apple brand itself had lost most of its former luster. Something dramatic was needed to save Apple from being bought out in a fire sale or simply fading into oblivion.

Jobs launched a two-part strategy to reinvigorate Apple. He started with the Think Different ad campaign, which associated the Apple brand with creative thinkers and revolutionaries. It was a huge hit, winning awards, drawing consumer interest, and generating tons of media buzz. But, above all, it set the stage for the rebirth of the Macintosh.

While the Think Different ads were making people feel cooler about the fruity computer maker, Jobs also refocused Apple’s product and engineering teams on developing the company’s next great product.

By the late 1990s computer sales were spiking due to the new killer app: the Internet. Lots of people were buying their first computers just to “get online.” Apple latched on to this trend with a computer that was designed to make connecting to the Internet as easy as taking the computer out of the box and plugging in two cords. Jobs and Co. even named it after the Internet - the iMac.

The iMac was a throwback to the original Mac in that it was an integrated all-in-one system, but it also included a unique new design with a translucent blue and white plastic case that allowed you to see the electronics and circuit boards inside. In the world of beige computers at the time, the iMac was extremely stylish. The launch of the iMac in 1998 (combined with the similarly-styled iBook and Power Mac G4 in 1999) drove a huge spike in Mac sales - at one point the iMac was even the single best-selling computer model in the world.

The Mac was back.

Dragon #2: The iPod

One of the things Apple had occasionally done to increase the appeal of the Macintosh platform was to build its own applications to match the style of the Mac and show off its capabilities. With the Mac’s revival and the launch the new Mac OS X operating system in 2001, Apple resurrected the strategy of making some of its own software apps.

One of the apps that it decided to build was a software jukebox so that users could copy music CDs to their Macs and manage all of their music digitally. This was part of Jobs’ strategy of turning Apple into a digital lifestyle brand and the Mac into a personal media hub.

In the process of making the software that would become iTunes, the Apple team also decided to make it compatible with some of the new MP3 players that allowed users to carry some of their songs in the digital equivalent of a Sony Walkman. However, after looking at the various MP3 players, Apple decided that all of them were crap and decided to design its own player instead. That’s when the iPod was born.

The first iPod launched on October 23, 2001 with 5GB of storage and the promise of “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Initially, it was only compatible with Macs and Apple viewed it as an accessory to help increase the appeal of the Mac. But, Jobs quickly realized that the iPod had much broader appeal, and much bigger sales potential.

In 2003, Apple ported iTunes to Windows and sales of the iPod skyrocketed. By the end of 2004, Apple had sold over 8 million iPods and was the dominate force in the digital music player market. Despite this dominance, and the fact that Jobs had convinced the music industry to sell its songs through the iTunes store, there were still a lot of doubts at that point about whether Apple would continue to own this market. With new players coming from Sony, Rio, Creative, Dell, and (eventually) Microsoft, a lot of analysts expected Apple to fade into a niche player, just as it had done in the computer business. It never happened.

By 2009, the iPod accounted for over 70% market share in the digital music player business.

Dragon #3: The Apple Store

When Apple launched the iPod in the fall of 2001, it was a bold and risky move. The company had never had a hit product outside of its computer line, other than companion printers for its computers. Apple was investing a lot in the iPod, and was initially counting on it to help drive a lot of Mac sales.

But, before Apple even launched the iPod, Jobs had already made an even riskier move. On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the doors on its first two retail stores. Both were in malls - in Glendale, California (a suburb of Los Angeles) and Tysons Corner, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.). The Apple Store was born.

Virtually no one in the press or on Wall Street thought it was a good idea. Gateway and Dell had already tried retail stores and completely flamed out. Microsoft had opened a tech lifestyle store called “microsoftSF” at the Metreon in San Francisco in 1999. Despite its prime location next to the Moscone Convention Center and in the heart of San Francisco’s tech community, it was a flop, too.

David Goldstein, a retail consultant writing for TheStreet.com, stated, “It’s desperation time in Cupertino, California. I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.”

A funny thing happened with the Apple Store, though: Customers showed up. Apple designed the stores to be high-touch and low-pressure. There was lots of light and open space and people could wander in and try out Apple products and accessories, get help with Mac hardware and software problems, and take classes on how to do new stuff with their Macs.

When Jobs first opened the Apple Store in 2001, Macintosh market share was hovering around 2% of the personal computer market. By 2010, Mac market share had risen to 10% (although some tracking services claim Mac market share is actually only about 5%).

Even beyond the raw market share gains for Mac, the Apple Stores were a runaway financial success. By the beginning of 2010, there were over 200 Apple Stores in 10 countries. In 2007, Fortune declared Apple the most profitable retailer in America. Apple’s Regent Street store was called the most profitable in London in 2009. And, in the heart of the retail capital of the world, the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City was called the highest grossing retailer in Manhattan by Bloomberg.

The most impressive statistic for the Apple Store may be that, in the brutal world of retail, the company has never had to shut down a single store.

Dragon #4: The iPhone

The successful risks that Apple took with the iPod and its retail stores emboldened Jobs and Co. to take another swing for the fences in 2007. At the Macworld Expo in January that year, Steve walked on to the stage for his annual keynote and told the audience, “We’re going to make to some history together today.”

In a career marked by effective salesmanship, the Macworld 2007 keynote was Jobs at his most persuasive. It also didn’t hurt that he had an innovative product to show off.

Thirty minutes into the keynote Jobs paused momentarily and said, “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and half years. Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything… [You're] very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate. It’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple. It changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry.

“Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And, the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device… These are not three separate devices. This is one device, and we are calling it ‘iPhone.’ Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”

In 2007, smartphones were primarily business tools deployed by corporate IT departments. They allowed professionals to check their email from their smartphones at all times. Most of these phones also had some limited Web browsing capabilities, but page loads were slow and reading Web sites on 320×240 screens was not pleasant.

The other problem with the smartphones of the time was that they were difficult to use. The Palm Treo, the BlackBerry, and the various Windows Mobile devices all had a fairly steep learning curve. For consumers buying smartphones at retail locations, there were reports of up to a 50% return rate, simply because people couldn’t figure out how to use them.

With the iPhone, Apple wanted to solve two problems. First, it wanted to make smartphones much easier to use, and second, it wanted to make the smartphone a legitimate Web browsing device. With its touch-based interface, the iPhone hit it out of the park on the first goal. From the first day it hit the market (June 30, 2007), the iPhone was the easiest smartphone to use. Many competitors have emulated it since then, but it arguably remains the most simple UI to navigate, especially for new users.

In terms of its goal of putting the full Web browser in the palm of your hand, the first iPhone arguably did succeed in offering the first fully functional and readable Web browser, mostly because of its pinch-to-zoom UI. However, this was negated by the fact that the first iPhone did not have 3G connectivity. So, even though the browser worked well, the Web browsing experience was painfully slow unless you were on Wi-Fi.

The other problem with the first generation iPhone was that it wasn’t very useful, especially for business professionals. It did not have the email functionality of the BlackBerry or the Treo, and it didn’t have a lot of applications to take advantage of the easy new UI. As a result, a lot of executives and IT departments wrote it off as a toy - mostly just a fancy iPod with a phone in it.

Apple stepped up its game with the second generation iPhone, giving it 3G functionality, Exchange ActiveSync support, better security features for businesses, and opening it up to third-party applications. Then, the third generation iPhone mostly pumped up the internal horsepower of the device.

By the end of 2009, U.S. market share for the iPhone climbed to 30% in a growing smartphone market crowded with a lot of players. Meanwhile, iPhone’s global market share grew to 17% in 2009.

However, the biggest victory for the iPhone has been its application ecosystem, which has attracted the most software developers and the most application installs. After opening the doors of its App Store in the summer of 2008, the App Store served its billionth download nine months later on April 23, 2009. Five months later on September 28, 2009, it served its two billionth download. A little over three months later on January 5, 2010, the App Store served its three billionth download.

Dragon #5: The Tablet

Long before Apple released the iPhone, there were rumors that the company was developing a tablet computer. Part of that was due to the PDA legacy with the Apple Newton and part of it was due to expected competition with Microsoft’s Tablet PC.

However, an Apple Tablet never appeared. Some of the technology that was rumored to be in the tablet, such as the multi-touch UI, eventually showed up in the iPhone. Nevertheless, the rumors of an Apple Tablet continued even after the iPhone was released. On the heels of one tablet rumor, I remember having a detailed conversation with Macworld Editor in Chief Jason Snell in the summer of 2008 about what an Apple Tablet might entail and why anybody would want one.

In 2009, the rumors of an impending Apple Tablet started to heat up. There was a report in March that Apple had ordered a bunch of 10-inch touchscreens. There were rumors in July that PA Semi, which Apple had acquired in 2008, was building the chips for the Apple Tablet. Then came the rumor in August from The Wall Street Journal that Jobs, who had just returned to Apple after a brush with death and a liver transplant, was spending nearly all of his time and energy on the development of a new touchscreen tablet. Oh, and in September, Apple hired back an original developer from the Newton team.

Ever since The Wall Street Journal article, most analysts, journalists, and observers in the tech industry have assumed that an Apple Tablet was coming. The main question was the timing.

The other big question centered around what the purpose of the tablet would be. Would it just be a big-screen iPhone or iPod Touch? Would it be a Mac laptop with a multi-touch screen and no keyboard? Would it be an e-reader? Would it be gaming platform (after all, games are a big part of the App Store)?

Ask five tech industry experts about the Apple Tablet and you’re likely to get at least six different answers. Still the general consensus is the Applet Tablet will be a personal media device and it’s primary function will be consuming digital content in various forms - text, audio, video, and a new breed of multimedia mashups.

The most revolutionary aspect of this device is that it could usher in a new era of interactive reading that would change books, newspapers, and magazines forever. As we heard Jobs say in his 2007 iPhone presentation, he loves to create products that can revolutionize industries, and a big swing for the fences like this one would be right up his alley.

It’s no secret that these are all industries that are desperately struggling to adapt their business models to the digital age. If Jobs could provide a new platform for them to do it and bring the masses a 21st century reading experience in the process, it would rank as another major conquest in Jobs’ prolific career.

Apple has reportedly been wooing content partners for months. Some have even posted their concepts for tablet-based content. Sport Illustrated offered a video of what its digital future could look like, and Ray Kurzweil’s Blio eReader software provides a glimpse of what the future of interactive e-books could be.

Recently, Steve Jobs reportedly said, “This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

Coming from him, that says a lot. For that reason, it’s also a tall order. Does he have it in him to slay another dragon?

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan. Larry is traveling on the west coast this week so he couldn’t make it, but he’ll be back next week. My colleague Bill Detwiler, TechRepublic’s Head Technology Editor, pinch-hit for him this week.

You can play this 29-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Download the MP3 file

If you enjoy this podcast, please go to to our iTunes page to rate it and leave a short review.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• Five technology trends to watch in 2010 (TechRepublic)
• Poll: Has the Web browser become your most-used interface platform? (TechRepublic)
• How did IT fall so far behind the tech curve? (ZDNet)
• Did The Wall Street Journal sabotage businesses by publishing tips on how to circumvent IT? (TechRepublic)
• Gartner: Ability to leverage consumerization of IT will make or break businesses (ZDNet)

So, what will be talking about at CES a decade from now? There are some people who think there won’t even be a CES ten years from now. I’m not one of them. The show might be smaller. It might have a slightly different name. It might even happen somewhere else besides Las Vegas. But I think there will continue to be a yearly technology convocation for many years to come.

For more insights the latest in tech, follow my Twitter stream: @jasonhiner

As for what we’ll be seeing and talking about a decade from now, here’s what my crystal ball says:

5. New models of Smartglasses

One of the biggest false trends of CES 2010 was 3DTV. The problem: Users don’t want to wear those goofy 3D glasses when they’re sitting on the couch or laying in bed to watch TV or a movie. However, people don’t mind wearing glasses when they are out in public. That’s why we’re likely to see a new generation of technology that will put computer displays into glasses and give users a visual layer of information about the world around them, offer customized alerts, and interact with their digital devices.

These glasses, which will integrate with prescription glasses or sunglasses in many cases, will be able to discreetly do things such as provide additional information about real-world locations (similar to Yelp Monocle), do facial recognition on people you meet and search your social network contact list to find them and display their name, grab the name of the song that’s currently playing on your iPod, and show caller ID and text messages coming in from your mobile phone.

4. Keyboard and mouse stage a sit-in

Despite lots of new touchscreens and gesture-based UIs that we’ll see in various forms at CES 2020, there will be one technology that stubbornly refuses to budge: the standard PC interface of keyboard and mouse. Its death has been prematurely predicted many times. After all, the two partners look remarkably prosaic sitting there next to sleek LCDs with their bright screens and touch-based controls. However, in 2020 (just as it is in 2010), when people are ready to sit down and do some serious work, they’ll still be using a keyboard and mouse — even if the future models are made out of touch-sensitive aluminum.

3. End of the content wars

The next decade is going to feature some bloody platform battles in the digital content business. From TV to books to newspapers to movies, the distribution of digital content is going to see brutal turf wars and nimble new competitors who run circles around lumbering old institutions that try to hang on to outdated business models by walling off their assets into cute little gardens.

By 2020, most of this will have shaken out and there will be a handful of standard platforms. Most users will no longer have a newspaper subscription or a big cable TV bill (and thus, won’t be paying for a lot of content they never use), but they will be making a lot more micropayments for their content. Most of them will ultimately pay less and the payments will happen behind the scenes. Users will simply “check their balance” like cellular minutes. The biggest benefit will be that content will be portable across all of the different screens a user interacts with throughout the day. You’ll be able to start to read an article or watch a show on one device and then seemlessly pick it up on another as you move throughout your day.

2. User-centric computing model

Some of today’s most useful new products involve syncing your stuff between different devices and locations. Syncing your files between a PC and a laptop and a smartphone, syncing your cloud data to your own private storage account, syncing your iTunes content between different computers, syncing your bookmarks between different systems and different Web browsers.

In 2020, all of this is going to be far simpler, and in some cases less necessary. We won’t be talking about syncing. We’ll be talking about ways to improve and extend the user-centric computing model. In this new model, your computing preferences, software, and data will follow you wherever you go, no matter which computer or device you use, and no matter which screen size or backend platform you’re using. You’ll have your choice of which provider you want to use to store and manage your data and preferences and all of them will come with about five free terabytes of data, and after that you’ll have to pay a little extra. CES 2020 will be showing off new applications and devices that plug into that framework.

1. Screens replace TVs

Currently, the biggest spectacle of CES is the flat-panel TVs. The biggest booths — Samsung, LG, Sony, etc. — are overloaded with massive numbers of high definition TV panels. At CES 2020, there will be no TVs on display.

Instead, these TVs will be replaced by OLED panels that are roughly the thickness of a sheet of vellum. The screen will be virtually transparent and will have a miniature chip in one corner that wirelessly connects to any nearby peripherals and content sources in a process similar to paring a bluetooth headset.

What Samsung and Sony will be talking about at CES 2020 is how these new screens can be elegantly integrated into various types of walls or picture frames so that they fuse into the natural decor of your home. Of course, Panasonic will be showing off a 240-inch OLED screen that can cover an entire wall of your great room and people like myself will write, “Why would I want to do that?” To which, Panasonic and TechRepublic members will respond, “Because you can!”

So, the more things change …

What tech innovations do you expect over the next decade? Join the discussion below.

While it officially launched on Thursday at CES, the QUE has been a known entity for months. It’s largely been thought of as an e-reader aimed at business users since PlasticLogic previously announced partnerships with Barnes & Noble and a variety of business trade publications.

At the launch, PlasticLogic CEO Richard Archuleta said, “We aren’t trying to create the paperless office or the paperless bookshelf, but the paperless briefcase.”

While the QUE proReader is meant to be a great reading device - it has new display technology called truVue designed in partnership with Adobe - the QUE has ambitions that go much further than ebooks. While most ereaders and tablet computers are focused on consumers, the QUE is laser-focused on business users.  For example, here are some ways that the QUE integrates with common vendors and technologies used by businesses:

• Microsoft Office - Displays Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents and integrates with Exchange mailboxes
• BlackBerry - A QUE app will allow users to transfer data from BlackBerry to QUE
• Good Technology - Wireless sync with Microsoft Exchange inbox and calendar
• Windows and Mac - Print documents to the QUE just like you would to a standard printer; this is called “print to device”

Clearly, this is designed to be a productivity device and not an entertainment device. As you can see in the photo above, the QUE homepage has your daily calendar on the left, your content on the right, and your Favorites and the QUE Store along the bottom.

The problem is the price. The 4GB WiFi-only model costs $650 and the 8GB WiFi/3G model sells for $800. When PlasticLogic announced the pricing at their CES press conference, there was literally a stunned silence among all of tech reporters.

This price point puts the QUE in direct competition with many tablet computers. Is there anyone who would rather have the black-and-white QUE than a slate PC in full color? The obvious answer would seem to be, “No.”

However, the QUE does have a few things going for it. The super-slim form factor is going to be thinner than any tablet. The “print-to-device” and BlackBerry integration will lower the friction for getting documents to the QUE and improve ease-of-use. The battery life will be much better than a tablet.

With all that in mind, I think we could see some executives and senior business managers choosing the QUE proReader over tablet and slate computers, even the much-anticipated Apple device. While a few tech writers, such as BNET’s Erik Sherman, have suggested that the Apple tablet will be aimed at businesses, I expect that it will be a consumer device aimed at aggregating various types of media content from periodicals to video to Web articles.

If the QUE is going to win the battle for the business user, it will be with its simplicity and its specialization for executives. For some of them, the QUE may be a more attractive way to replace a stack of documents and a stack of newspapers and magazines when they go on the road or even when they travel locally to business meetings. However, I think the QUE will need the promise of a color screen in the next version of the product. A QUE proReader with a Mirasol display, like the ones we saw at CES, would be pretty compelling.

For more details on the QUE, watch the video clips below that I took at the product’s launch at CES.

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan.

You can play this 22-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

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Stories discussed in this episode:

• Buying into a new PC form factor? It’s the best (and worst) of times (ZDNet)
• Do you really want a slate or tablet PC? Really? (TechRepublic)
• Apple Tablet could change computing (TechRepublic)
• Nvidia pushes Tegra tablets and 3D technology (ZDNet)
• Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid laptop in action; first impressions (ZDNet)
• What are your predictions for the Apple Tablet? (TechRepublic)
• Podcast: Would an Apple tablet compete with netbooks or the Kindle? (TechRepublic)

The idea is that this plug, which is about the size of a power brick, is a mini PC that plugs into the wall and is always-on. It essentially becomes as a plug-and-play server. It consumes about one watt of electricity. It has a 2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 2GB Flash storage, an Ethernet port, a USB port, and runs a version of Linux.

Marvell has opened this up to OEMs and developers and invited them to build on top of this concept, and the company has had more than 10,000 downloadeds of its development kit. For companies, developers, and startups that are interested, you get more info at PlugComputer.org.

I talked to Marvell vice president Simon Milner at CES and he provided an introduction to the Plug Computing platform.

This is an interesting concept. I’m just having a hard time thinking of some really interesting uses for this, other than a really basic home server with a small Flash drive.

Am I missing something? Anyone else have ideas for what you could do with something like this?

Keep in mind that most of these products deal with mundane things like battery charging and printing, and aren’t very flashy, but I think they can offer some good value nonetheless.

5. Targus Premium Laptop Charger

Computer accessory-maker Targus unveiled its new Premium Laptop Charger at CES. There are several features that make this thing innovative. First, it allows you to charge both your laptop and cellphone from a single outlet. Second, it works as both an AC charger for a standard socket and a DC charger in your car. And third, it is future-proofed because it has interchangeable tips and Targus offers free tips for the life of the product (as long you register the product online). The only thing you pay for the tips is about five bucks for shipping.

The product comes with tips for nine different laptop brands, a mini-USB tip, and a tip for iPod/iPhone. Once caveat: there are no tips for Mac laptops, since Apple makes the chargers proprietary. The retail price of the product is $149, which is a little steep, but when you consider that it essentially takes the place of four chargers (laptop AC, cellphone AC, laptop DC, cellphone DC) and it allows you to carry fewer cords, then it makes sense.

I’m not sure many business folks will run out and buy this to replace their current chargers, but if you need a replacement laptop charger or you want a second or third charger then this one could be a great option.

4. Lexmark Platinum Pro905

There’s hardly any technology less exciting than printers but at CES Lexmark showed off its new Platinum Pro905 all-in-one that offers a great opportuntiy for small businesses and remote offices to save money on printing costs. Its black ink cartridges cost just $4.99, and each of its three color cartridges are $9.99. The device itself, which serves as a printer, copier, scanner, and fax machine, retails for $399 and comes with a five-year warranty.

The product also offers 802.11n wireless, printing directly from an iPhone (photos only for now), and Web-connected printer apps called SmartSolutions that allow the Pro905 to automate common tasks like scanning a document and emailing it to your accountant.

3. Powermat Wireless Charger

Powermat’s wireless charging system for smartphones and other small devices was one of the big hits at last year’s CES when it was first announced. The product officially hit the market in the U.S. at Best Buy and Target in the fall and has reportedly sold over 250,000 units.

Powermat allows you to replace your device batteries with Powermat batteries and battery doors (adding a little weight and bulk) and then simply laying them on a mat to charge them instead of plugging them in. At CES 2010, Powermat showed off the next generation of its product, which includes a new selection of mats in various shapes and sizes and, most importantly, new technology that makes the doors and battery covers integrate much more seamlessly and without adding any weight or bulk to the devices, especially smartphones.

The example below shows the existing Powermat battery cover on the right (with the raised finish) and the 2.0 battery cover on the left (naturally integrated with the existing device design). This is how Powermat will work with virtually any case that has a removable battery. However, that does not include the iPhone.

2. BlackBerry Presenter

Research in Motion unveiled a new accessory at CES: The BlackBerry Presenter. It’s a little box that connects to a standard conference room projector and allows you to run a PowerPoint presentation wirelessly from your BlackBerry.

If you have BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), you can even email the PPT file to yourself and then just run the presentation from that email message. It will enable a lot of road warriors to ditch their laptops when they travel to give presentations, especially on same-day trips. Hooking up a laptop to a unfamiliar projector is a chronic help desk problem. The BlackBerry Projector can make it a little simpler. Just connect it to a VGA port and click the button on the top to activate it.

The device costs $199 and it requires BlackBerry OS 4.6 or later.

1.PlasticLogic QUE proReader

The PlasticLogic QUE was one of the most anticipated product launches of CES 2010. A lot of information had been revealed or leaked beforehand, but most of us tended to think of the QUE as an ereader oriented toward newspapers and magazines and aimed at business professionals.

The reality exceed those expectations as the QUE proReader turned out to be what PlasticLogic CEO Richard Archuleta called a “wireless briefcase.” Not only does the QUE have deals in place with all of the top business periodicals, but it also syncs with Microsoft Exchange, provides “print-to-device” functionality, reads Microsoft Office documents and PDFs, and allows BlackBerry users to transfer data from their smartphones.

Unfortunately, there was another way in which the QUE exceeded expectations: the price. The two models cost $650 and $800. At that price, it will have to compete with tablet and slate computers.

I asked all of them the same two questions:

1. What was the most interesting new product you saw at CES?
2. What is the most important tech trend you see gathering momentum coming out of CES?

Watch their responses in the following videos and read the highlights below. (A download of all the video segments will be posted at 4:00PM EST.)

For more insights the latest tech topics, follow my Twitter stream: @jasonhiner

Veronica Belmont (Host, Tekzilla)

Most interesting product: Copia E-reader and PlasticLogic QUE

Most important trend: 3D home theater

[video=382739 autoplay=false]

Harry McCracken (Editor, Technologizer)

Most interesting product: Skiff Reader

Most important trend: Alternative computing devices

[video=382743]

Tom Merritt (Executive Editor, CNET)

Most interesting product: PlasticLogic QUE and Lenovo IdeaPad U1

Most important trend: 3D TV

[video=382746]

Lance Ulanoff (Editor in Chief, PC Magazine)

Most interesting product: PlasticLogic QUE or the Skiff Reader or the Entourage Edge

Most important trend: 3D TV

[video=382748]

Molly Wood (Executive Editor, CNET)

Most interesting product: Lenovo IdeaPad U1

Most important trend: 3D TV and E-readers

[video=382770]

Dave Zatz (Editor, ZatzNotFunny)

Most interesting product: Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Popcorn Popbox

Most important trend: E-readers and slate computers

[video=382772]

Robert Scoble (Founder, Building43.com)

Most interesting product: 3D video games and the Google Nexus One

Most important trend: Car tech and the always-connected world

[video=382775]

Leo Laporte (Founder, TWiT TV)

Most interesting product: Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Pico projectors

Most important trend: Mobile computing + Web apps

[video=382778]

See also: The five best products of CES 2010, for business users