Have a feeling we are in violent agreement. You were the one that
mentioned fashionable - not me....
Interestingly at Oracle openworld last week Larry Ellison went on a rant
against the notion of webservices as a universal panacea. And talked at
length about our fashion industry (some of what he said was bull, a lot
was right on!)
I cover middleware at my firm (a broad specialization right!!!) and it
has been interesting recently to see the ERP firms become more
infrastructure oriented. I recently spent some time with SAP and
therefore sent the stuff through to ad a "new" perspective to the list,
which was less keitai specific.
Interestingly SAP is NOT going with BEA weblogic or IBM Websphere but is
building its own J2EE app server. And it is not going with "pure" Java
because of its different requirements.
I am very interested in thinnish/fattish client debate. I don't think it
will go away - any more than the client/server/distributed
computing/centralized/decentralized pendulum stops swinging.
My intention was just to inject some ERP vendor thinking into the
debate. But noone picked up the thread. I guess ERP is not cool enough.
I actually DID post some specifics according to SAP about why client
side extensions might or might not be necessary. Sorry if they weren't
relevant.
One statement from you I don't understand:
"Several corporates might have adopted blackberry and Palm platforms as
well. What does that have to tell you about thin clients or otherwise in
any way? PocketPC, the last time I checked, was still very much the OS
for that
device, isn't it?"
pocketpc is the OS for *what device*? Pocket PC is microsoft's mobile
OS, ,used by vendors such as Compaq (ipaq device), HP (jornada), and
Casio (casiopea). Pocket PC is competing hard against Palm and Symbian.
Re the specifics of what and can not be delivered through a thin client
its really hard to tell. Its too early in the model. As a rule I favor
thinnish client approaches, but the 3G debacles in Europe (all the
network owners are somewhat screwed) and the US (lack of standards, very
poor marketing, lack of funding too). Means that a dual approach is very
interesting.
If I can synchronize at any starbucks, then why do I need an always on
connection?
Just a few thoughts
James Governor
analyst
Illuminata, Inc.
(+44) 207 254 7371
-----Original Message-----
From: Shashank Tripathi [mailto:shanx@shanx.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 3:18 AM
To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Cc: James Governor
Subject: Re: (keitai-l) ERP on i-mode phones
Hi James,
Long time since I've checked this list so I might be a tad out of
context.
The original posting I am replying to is included at the end of this
message.
>> ummmm. ERP isn't meant to be fashionable...
If you read my message carefully, the word was never meant to indicate
that
fashion is more important than function (sorry to prick a balloon, but
that's quite a cliche I would imagine). However, things that gain
currency
in an industry usually have some good reasons for doing so, and looking
at
those reasons is almost always a very good idea.
>> And the current adoption of PocketPC 2002 by corporates
>> does rather indicate that fat clients are not going to disappear
>> any time soon.
Several corporates might have adopted blackberry and Palm platforms as
well.
What does that have to tell you about thin clients or otherwise in any
way?
PocketPC, the last time I checked, was still very much the OS for that
device, isn't it?
Of course devices will need an OS, and those OSes might come with some
standard pre-built functionality, but that does not mean that loading
the
whole device with *additional* thick client-side software is the
intended
strategy of any corporate. A simple common access software (e.g., a
browser)
on a pocketPC/Palm/WhatHaveYou might (and is) perhaps a lot more
practical
approach.
Interestingly, even the company you seem to know well, SAP, seems to be
increasingly inclined to move away from its bulky R/3 legacy to more
centralized architecture based on a WebLogic platform? (Maybe you can
help
me on this one).
>> a host of web services issues need to be resolved. they don't
>> magically get rid of the problems
Of course they won't. I am wondering what in my message gave you this
impression to begin with.
But there is a strong value proposition in the web services architecture
and
ignoring the inherent benefits of new technologies such as web services,
which is what Victor's email seemed to be so blatantly doing, is what I
was
writing against.
In any case, to make this thread more relevant to the present forum, it
would be helpful if you or Victor can actually mention some facts from
your
experience that make it important to have client-side software on
keitai...for instance, is there some functionality that cannot be
delivered
on a web-based or webservices-based model and accessed via a common
access
platform such as a browser on a keitai or a handheld?
Shanx
PS.
The pun about "incite" was interesting! :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Governor" <jgovernor@illuminata.com>
To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:18 PM
Subject: (keitai-l) ERP on i-mode phones
ummmm. ERP isn't meant to be fashionable... it's surely about function
not fashion. ERP customers don't give a toss whether the solution
offered is "fashionable" or not do they? they just need to know it
works?
And the current adoption of PocketPC 2002 by corporates does rather
indicate that fat clients are not going to disappear any time soon.
a host of web services issues need to be resolved. they don't magically
get rid of the problems Victor is thinking of when he mentions
"terminals"
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Received on Mon Dec 10 12:42:48 2001