As I prepare to attend Navteq’s European Developers Conference later this week, I am following Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq with great interest. Both Nokia and Navteq are “super” companies and, I am proud to say, great clients of ours. Nokia switched from a “voice calling” mobility strategy to an “internet/services” mobility strategy long ago; Navteq offers another major lever for this strategy. This pairing of two companies, who are each number one in their respective categories - if the deal goes through - will present Nokia’s competitors with another formidable challenge, as if Nokia wasn’t formidable enough already. It will be interesting to see how this will impact further changes in the mobility landscape. I’ll post what I hear from Europe later this week.

I think that the best websites are easy to use, uncluttered, load quickly and deliver their purpose clearly and succinctly. Three companies that I think do this well are United Airlines, Gu Sports and Cervelo. Of course, my new favorite site is ours. In late July our marketing and IT departments launched their work - and I couldn’t be more pleased.

We received feedback that our previous e-store needed improvement, and as a result our new site features a new integrated e-store, allowing clients to purchase select reports directly from the site and to immediately download a PDF with the safety and security of Authorize.net.

The new site’s layout puts our latest releases front and center with our new Features column. New reports and announcements with graphics and links make it easy to find out what’s going on at Evans Data, and will be updated regularly.

We decided to make our sample pages simpler and more accessible. Visitors are now invited to download a PDF of the page itself, ensuring the graphs reflect the same quality found in the physical report.

Drop a line to Sean, our IT Manager, and let us know what you think. We are always looking for feedback. Our next big objective is a revamp of the Evans Data Developer Network site, where we communicate with our developer panel.

This month as a reward for participating in one of our research efforts developers will get a chance to win a Nokia N95. This is a very powerful phone with one of the best, if not the best, cameras I’ve ever had the experience to enjoy. Of course this month the iPhone hit the market as well. As usual Apple “hit another home run” in the cool yet functional category, especially for a version 1. Also, later this month RIM is introducing a version of their Blackberry which is dual mode allowing users to access Wifi - this is a huge leap forward for them.

Bottom line: the Smartphone industry is heating up and the iPhone has been instrumental in accelerating adoption as well as of course upcoming innovations. Interestingly the biggest winner may be AT&T - the incumbent carrier for both the iPhone and the new generation RIM. The iPhone itself has been attributed to some 25% of their purchases, having migrated from other carriers. Keep in mind that AT&T is the oldest company in the industry; making it’s attachment to this innovation bandwagon even more impressive.

Last week we were asked our opinion of Microsoft’s relationship with software developers. During the Iowa anti-trust hearing expert witnesses stated that Microsoft treats software developers like “pawns”. Our research, which is software developer driven, and vendor neutral, indicates that over the years Microsoft has developed one of the strongest, if not the strongest, software developer program out there. They consistently scored high marks across the wide range of attributes that characterize these programs in our benchmarking research through the last five years. Further, our research indicates that this is not going to change and instead that Microsoft just keeps “raising the bar”.

After a treacherous commute over the hill from Santa Cruz to San Jose,
we had just five minutes to spare before my presentation to the Ajax
World attendees. The pitch, A Snapshot in Time from the “Developers
View.” I was able to cover a broad range of topics including how many
developers are using AJAX, where they are located and in which industry
segments, what types of applications they are using and why, and of
course how we see this market developing over the next 1-2 years. The
Q&A that followed was great and the folks at Sys-Con really liked what my
team and I put together for the presentation. I’ll keep everyone
updated the next time I’m to stand behind a conference podium.

This Tuesday, October 3rd, at 9:50 am I will be speaking at AJAX World at the Santa Clara Convention Center. I am slotted right after the keynote by Jesse James Garrett and the Adobe Demo. We here at Evans Data Corp just wrapped up some extensive research on the use and future of AJAX and found some interesting data that I will share in my presentation. If you are going to be there but can’t make my speaking slot, drop me a line and we can grab some coffee. AJAX use will only increase in the future and this is truly a great time for this conference. Click here for more information about the conference

Just a quick heads up to anyone who will be attending next week’s Linux World Conference in San Francisco: I will be joining a Linux panel hosted by IBM’s Scott Handy, Vice President for Worldwide Linux and Open Source, next Tuesday, August 15th at four o’clock. I’m looking forward to the live panel and discussion on how to drive success through Linux. It will be in Q and A format which should make for some dynamic conversations. Come listen in at the panel or send me an email letting me know that you’ll be at the conference. I look forward to any chance to chat with friends of Evans Data. See you at Linux World.

We’re finishing up our latest Vision Series research here at Evans Data. The Vision Series looks into the future of development through focus groups and individual interviews with developers and software architects. Among the interesting talking points gleaned from this most recent panel is insight into vendor support. Developers are having issues with software support, which is no real surprise. However, according to developers most of the vendors offer good support, it’s just hard to attain. The “good support” apparently sits at the top of the support ladder, otherwise knows as “escalated support.” That means you have to deal with the basic support staff and move yourself up the chain before reaching the top. We found that a developer has to jump through so many hoops, that many forgo vendor support and spend valuable time trouble shooting problems themselves or trying to find solutions on the internet. Panelists also said the support techs go by the book to much, they read off a script, and it’s hard to find someone with true technical expertise. Panelists do say that though it takes a while, phone support sometimes is better than the Internet for solving complex problems. That is, of course, assuming one can talk to someone at the top.

Dave Rosenberg, a blogger at InfoWorld has some nice words to say about Krugle, one of our clients. Read what he says in an article entitled, “Krugle code search engine out of beta and into the world.”

An excerpt: “The Krugle team stayed up all night and released the 1.0 version of their online code/project/tech paper search engine. It’s a very cool tool for developers who need a way to find code quickly and efficiently.”

It’s exciting to see one of our early stage venture backed clients get product to market. Last year we launched a new practice targeting early stage companies who are a part of the software ecosystem. The goal is to help them in market sizing and opportunity assessment, product planning/management, market testing and fund raising. Krugle is our first success story in that regard and we see a very bright future for them. If you haven’t used their vertical search you’re missing a great opportunity to improve your effectiveness and overall productivity.

Check out what Krugle had to say about working with us in their blog entitled “Thanks!….and a hint.”

Now there’s one more player into the already crowded and competitive security software market. Microsoft is officially in the game, with both “One Care” and “Antigen.” Software, however, is only half the battle. It seems to me that a company can buy all the software in the world, but it doesn’t mean a thing if the people using it are not on the same page. I took a look at Evans Data’s latest major regional studies (APAC, EMEA, and North America) and across the board; users’ failure to adhere to policy is cited as the greatest challenge to system security. In North America alone social engineering and non-adherence to policy is the number one barrier to effective security implementation by four to one. The data Evans’ has on security is pretty rich, and we’ve been able to pinpoint other significant areas of opportunity in security. Looking at the regional surveys side by side, it also appears developers are consistent as far as security software. Looking at the best security software overall and in various situations (from Firewalls, to Antivirus, to Spyware blockers, and more) developers consistently rate one or two products as better than the rest. Ultimately though, I guess you can have the best security apps in the world, and it won’t mean a thing unless the people using them are doing it right.