Incrementalism and “The New New Thing”

With all the venture capital moving around in the Silicon Valley, where is the real innovation?

By Jeff Nolan, NewsGator

The latest venture capital numbers are in and guess what? Software startups drew another $1.3 billion in investment during first quarter. I’m wondering, “Where is “’The New New Thing’?”

Today’s venture capitalists are funneling a lot of money into businesses which are only incremental improvements over what the current market offers. The situation may leave the technology industry in another downward spiral if none of these “incremental” ventures fail to hit it big and no other genuine innovation appears soon.

LAST CHANCE: Software 2008 is Next Week!

Don’t miss your opportunity to network with the largest group of enterprise software and services executives assembled this year. Software 2008 takes place on April 29-30 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Keynote speakers include Dave DeWalt of McAfee, Jesper Andersen of Oracle and Surya Kant of TCS. Up-and-coming company CEOs will share their case studies of fast-growth as part of the Innovation Showcase. And breakout session tracks will take an in-depth look at the latest issues for software vendors, such as SaaS/Cloud Computing, open source and Enterprise 2.0. Register now and be a part of this unique gathering!

AppDev Innovation – The Virtualization Way

Virtualization touches all aspects of the technology business today. Ramesh Panuganty of Cognizant Technology Solutions explains how to leverage the possibilities of virtualization in the application development process without falling victim to its potential setbacks in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on Enabling Innovation.

Is SOA Getting Boring?

Last year, IBM said SOA was moving from the IT realm to that of business. Now the company says SOA is more about dealing with basic technical infrastructure issues. Tony Baer of OnStrategies talked to IBM’s Steve Mills about the shift in thinking and why SOA will increase competition in the software industry in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on SOA.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

DON’T MISS: Making the Board More Strategic

Corporate directors want to spend more time developing forward-looking strategies that help maximize shareholder value. Boards that are already highly influential in creating corporate value work differently. Read how in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly

News Update: Where the Dollars Flow

Strong Q1 profits appear despite a slowed economy; plus, SaaS evolves to PaaS and DaaS, giants partner to capture mid-market revenue, Oracle expands its SAP lawsuit and MySQL causes an uproar. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Incremental Innovation?

Can the technology industry grow on incremental innovation or will it take a “new new thing” for real profits?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, readers speculated on whether Sybase could remain independent and successful amid rapid vendor consolidation.
Give us your opinion and see the results >>

More at SandHill.com:

Web 2.0 companies will spend $4.6 billion by 2013, Forrester predicts.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Venture capital investing slows in first quarter.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

Microsoft acquired Farecast for an undisclosed sum.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

Mike Bradley named CEO of Apprion.
See who's made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.”
–Karen Kaiser Clark

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics.