Description
RedMonk is a new kind of industry analyst firm dedicated to understanding and building narratives that underpin product marketing and purchase. Understanding technology is crucial to understanding the industry, but is by no means sufficient.
The best technology rarely wins—rather, the best marketed technology does. VHS trumped Betamax in the 70s. Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3 invented “personal productivity” in the 80s but are now footnotes in history. Oracle trumped Sybase and Informix in the early 90s through aggression and marketing. Microsoft has repeatedly triumphed against strong market incumbents not on the strength of its products but its marketing.
The question becomes bigger than technology -- it's about context.
RedMonk covers the industry by looking at integrated software stacks, focusing on business and operational context rather than speeds and feeds and feature tick-lists. Its primary thesis is that IBM and Microsoft are the leaders in a fast consolidating industry and this assumption underpins its model for understanding the industry, now and in future.
Of course vendors such as CA, HP, BEA, Oracle, SAP, and Sun are hugely important companies in their own right, and RedMonk covers them closely, just as it covers the vendors and technologies in its coverage areas that drive the market through innovation. Trying to understand the dynamics of the industry without understanding, for example, where and how Java fits in, and who the key players are, would make no sense. Ditto for open source technologies. In terms of sheer scale, reach and breadth however it is hard to argue that IBM and Microsoft are not the main centers of gravity.
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