forrester

Open source has become big business, suggests an article in the Investors Business Daily, but it has done so by becoming more like the proprietary-software world it purports to leave behind.

The article cites recent research from IDC indicating that CIOs allocated up to 24 percent of their budgets to open-source software in 2008, up from 10 percent in 2007--a finding that jibes with recent data from Forrester. This open-source growth is propelling Red Hat to grow "at two to three times the rate of the broader software industry over a multiyear horizon," according to research from Piper Jaffray.… Read more

It used to be so easy to be a proprietary-software vendor.

That is, until the open-source neighbors moved in. As noted in a Gartner analysis from late last year, proprietary software is on the wane within enterprises while open source is gaining:

That's not the sort of chart that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer likes to wake up to, but it's a message to which CIOs are increasingly warming.

The reason? Well, cost is the primary driver for open-source consideration, as a recent Forrester report suggests, but what is most significant is the overwhelmingly positive experience CIOs are having … Read more

Apple fanboys, I have something for you.

According to data released by Forrester Research on Friday, during 2008 Apple enjoyed a decisive lead in the firm's Customer Experience Index (or CxPi). In short, this means Apple is supposedly the most lovely PC maker in the world, while Dell is the worst.

Forrester conducted its survey in October 2008 by asking 4,564 U.S. consumers about their interactions with a variety of companies, gauging the usefulness, usability, and enjoyability of those experiences. Based on these consumer responses, the firm calculated the CxPi for 113 firms in 12 different industries, including PC makers.

The ratings were compiled based on the answers to the following three questions: How effective was the company at meeting your needs? How easy was it to work with this firm? And how enjoyable were the interactions? Participants selected responses to these queries from a five-point scale. The individual indexes were calculated by taking the percentage of consumers who selected one of the top two points and subtracting from that the percentage of consumers who selected one of the bottom two points.

The research firm concluded in its report that Apple--whose rating is 80 percent, which is 14 points higher than that of the next firm on the list, Gateway--is the only PC vendor that earned a rating of "good"; the rest, including Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Dell ended up with designations of either "OK" or "Poor." Apple's reported "ease of use" largely helped it take the lead.… Read more

Apple easily outdistanced its peers in a PC industry customer-satisfaction survey conducted by Forrester Research that found PC companies are only slightly more well-liked than insurance companies.

An overall satisfaction rating of 80 percent was good enough for Apple to trounce the second-place finisher, Gateway, which scored 66 percent. Forrester surveyed 4,564 U.S. consumers online in October in compiling the results, which were published Friday on the research firm's Web site.

Apple and Gateway were followed by HP, Compaq, and Dell, respectively in the survey results. (Compaq, though part of HP, is generally counted separately in branding … Read more

Recent survey data compiled by Forrester Consulting on behalf of information systems specialist Bull suggests that we're at the front end of a long cycle of open-source infrastructure and application adoption.

That's right. Despite Gartner finding that 85 percent of enterprises have already adopted open source and Forrester Research's consulting arm finding that 45 percent of all companies that are using open-source software use it for mission-critical applications, the adoption appears to be somewhat thin, leaving a great deal of room for even more adoption, especially in open-source applications:

Huge swaths of the market have apparently adopted … Read more

Opera, announced Thursday that it has inked a deal with Skyhook Wireless that will bring geolocation to its browser. According to the company, those who download the geolocation-equipped Opera browser will be able to share their location with any site that supports it and get information about related products and services in their area.

Skyhook played an integral role in making the geolocation possible. The company's Wi-Fi Position System makes it possible for any computer or mobile phone with a wireless adapter to be located.

In conjunction with the release of a new Opera build that supports geolocation, the … Read more

Blasted XP didn't warn me that my hard drive was full! Therefore, half of the podcast didn't record. Thankfully, I was able to salvage yesterday's episode from the Ustream recording, so here it is! Special guests include ZDNet's Andrew Mager, SXSW Event Director Hugh Forrest, and Blogger's Rick Klau.

Happy Pi Day! http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/13/happy-pi-day.html

Facebook: It’s party time for the social Web…on the iPhone http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196472-2.html

Facebook Adobe AIR application http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=23723376453#/apps/application.php?id=23723376453… Read more

Magento, the leading open-source e-commerce platform, has just notched a new honor: Forrester Research has named it an "Emerging Player to Watch" in its Forrester Wave: B2C eCommerce Platforms, Q1 2009 report.

This is an exceptional testament to the growing momentum of Magento. Varien's Magento is the only open-source e-commerce platform named in the report, alongside industry leaders IBM and ATG.

But it's not what Varien has done with Magento that Forrester deems exciting. Rather, it is Magento's momentum, and implicit room to grow, that Forrester calls this out in its report:

Magento is a … Read more

Forrester Research is cutting its workforce by about 5 percent, or 50 jobs, worldwide, the company said on Monday.

The research firm expects to incur pre-tax expenses of about $2.5 million to $3 million in the first quarter related mostly to severance and benefits-related costs.

"We have made this difficult decision in response to challenging global economic conditions," George F. Colony, Forrester's chief executive, said in a statement. "Forrester has lived through tough economic times before. We are confident that with our role-based strategy and our current offerings, we are well-poised to successfully deliver what … Read more