MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – Technological trendsetters such as Google and Apple, as well as other new rising businesses that profit from “cloud computing” are rapidly changing the ways of doing business in Silicon Valley, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The “cloud computing” refers to the practice of using a network of remote servers, hosted on the Internet, and can be used to store, manage and process data. This enables users to access their files from any kind of Internet-connected device, such as a smartphone or tablet, as opposed to having to carry their laptop and desktop computers, the AP said.
Companies, such as Salesforce.com Inc., VMware Inc. and Workday Inc. have successfully figured out ways to make profits working with the “cloud” model. Online storage services Dropbox and Box have not yet gone public, but venture capitalists predict “cloud” storing services will thrive, as mobile devices and “cloud-computing” services need such storing systems, and are currently on rise, the AP said.
Hewlett-Packard (HP), once the world’s biggest seller of personal computers (PC) is experiencing hard times, as the rise in the popularity of mobile products has had a significant effect on PC sales. Since the release of the iPad in 2010, the annual revenue of HP’s PC sales has plummeted by more than 20 percent and the company’s market value has fallen by 40 percent ($55 billion), the AP reports.
Paul Saffo, a long-time Silicon Valley observer, believes that HP and other large companies are “struggling to compete against younger upstarts” smaller in size and scale. “Once upon a time, scale and size were a competitive advantage. Now, they are a problem”, Saffo said, as quoted by the AP.
Technology experts say companies are generally better off when they have a range of products to plea to various demands of different customers, as opposed to specializing on one direction only.
