If you prefer reading text to watching video, please click the “Transcript” link underneath the video. Below the video window you’ll also find links for more information about the top five smartphones that made the list.

[video=355855]

Here are links to read more about each of the top five:

1. BlackBerry Tour
2. Apple iPhone 3GS
3. Palm Pre
4. HTC Touch Pro2
5. Nokia E71

Some of you may ask why the Motorola Droid didn’t make the list. After all, it’s a new smartphone that has received excellent reviews and is made to be very business-friendly. The reason is simple: It’s still too new at this point. We’d like to see it get adopted by some business users and hear their thoughts on how well the Droid integrates into business. However, an upcoming episode of CIO Sanity Savers will examine the Droid as a business device and report on TechRepublic’s perspective of it.

The good news was that a smaller number of CIOs are projecting further budget cuts for 2010. Only 28% said that 2010 budgets would be less than 2009, while 45% project budgets as flat from 2009 to 2010. Check out the charts below.

Here is the chart comparing 2009 to 2008:

Here is the chart comparing 2010 to 2009:

The data comes via the IT Trend Survey from the Society for Information Management, one of the largest and most influential professional organizations for CIOs, IT directors, and aspiring IT executives.

Here were the top priorities that CIOs cited for 2009:

1. Business productivity and cost reduction
2. IT and business alignment
3. Business agility and speed to market
4. Business process re-engineering
5. IT cost reduction
6. IT reliability and efficiency
7. IT strategic planning
8. Revenue generating IT innovations
9. Security and privacy
10. CIO leadership role

Here are the top six application and technology investments that CIOs reported for 2009:

1. Business intelligence
2. Server virtualization
3. ERP systems
4. Customer/corporate portals
5. Enterprise application integration/management (EAI/EAM)
6. Continuity planning/disaster recovery

ERP, Portals, and EAI/EAM were all new to the list in 2009. SIM noted that this points to a trend of IT leaders trying to quickly “deliver new services that can reduce the cost of doing business.”

This is a wedge issue for CIOs. They need to spend enough time engaged directly in IT to keep their technical knowledge sharp and maintain the respect of their staff, but they also need to establish themselves as business leaders, and not just technologists, with the company’s top brass.

The chart below provides a breakdown of how CIOs are spending their time, based on the SIM survey.

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After George Washington led the fledgling little U.S. nation to victory in the Revolutionary War, he turned down the opportunity to be crowned king of America. The idea was distasteful to Washington because it went against everything he and his troops had fought for: the promise of a better kind of country based on freedom and democracy.

When England’s King George III heard about Washington preparing to turn down the monarchy and return to his Virginia farm, he said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

It was, in fact, Washington’s greatest maneuver of all, because of its complete genuineness. It endowed him with an air of incorruptibility. And, because of that, six years later when he was elected the first U.S. President he was able to succeed in uniting all of the fractious elements of the country for one reason - they all trusted him.

The same is true with Google.

I know that sounds like a pretty big cognitive leap, but hear me out on this.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-authored a paper in 1998 in which they argued that search engines should not be funded by advertising because it would negatively influence search results. Specifically, they wrote, “We expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers.”

So, just as the two Stanford PhD candidates were getting Google off the ground, they were arguing in their paper for a “search engine that is transparent and in the academic realm.”

However, Google soon became so popular and generated so much traffic that it outgrew the computing resources at Stanford, and Page and Brin were all but forced to spin out Google into a private company and get funding from investors if they wanted to keep the project going.

Google got funded, but the Internet environment of the late 1990s was not very search engine friendly. Search was basically considered to be good enough and not something that was very interesting. Search engines like Yahoo and AltaVista were racing to transform themselves into “portals” that became destinations for users to hang around, and not just search sites where people came, found what they were looking for, and then jumped off to someone else’s site.

Like George Washington at the beginning of the American Revolution, Google appeared to be on the wrong side of history and up against powerfully entrenched enemies that it appeared unlikely to defeat.

But, as Google became the anti-portal with better search results and a simple page uncluttered by extra links and graphics-heavy display ads, more and more users began flocking to the site. More user growth meant that Google needed more money from investors, and once investors got on board there was soon a lot more pressure on Page and Brin to find ways for Google to make money.

The easy answer would have been to put banner ads on the Google home page. With all of the traffic that Google generated, these ads would immediately translate into millions of dollars of revenue per month. However, Brin and Page refused to do it, even though it would have made them both very wealthy.

They viewed ad-cluttered pages as something that was turning the Internet into a place much more friendly to businesses than to users. To them, it was a sign of everything that was wrong with the Internet and it was completely antithetical to the kind of Internet they wanted to create. Is this starting to sound familiar yet?

The Google monetization dilemma soon developed into a public issue. Users loved Google and didn’t want to see it go away, but many of them also understood that Google was a business and that it had to find ways to make money or else it would disappear. Many users became resigned to the fact that the Google home page would eventually have banner ads on it.

But, Page and Brin found a compromise. They agreed to put ads on Google, but only text-based ads, and only ones that were relevant based on matching topics and keywords from searches. If there were no topically relevant ads, then no ads at all would show up on the searches.

In the end, this system (AdWords) turned out to be far more lucrative than banner ads. But, more importantly, the refusal by Page and Brin to sell out by putting display ads on Google endeared them to the public and gave them an aura of incorruptibility.

This perception has been bolstered by Google’s famous “don’t be evil” mantra that Page and Brin have made the cornerstone of Google’s corporate culture. As a result, Google has become one of the most trusted brands in the world, and that trust from users has become a critical reserve as Google has expanded far beyond search and created the largest repository of personal data in human history.

Despite its initial commitment to transparency and recent baby steps like Google Dashboard, Google has never told us how it secures all of this precious data from hackers, or how it protects Google employees from unauthorized snooping in the data, or what it’s policies are for revealing parts of that data to government investigations and court cases. Instead, Google has basically stated that it takes user privacy very seriously and that it has strict controls in place to protect the data. In others words, it’s just said, “Trust me.” So far, users and governments have gone along for the ride, but how long will the ride last?

I’m happy to report that TechRepublic won 10 awards, including six first place awards, the most of any publication. Here are the winners, listed with the category, the award level, and the winning TechRepublic entry:

• Integrated Social Media Community (Gold) TechRepublic Community
• Blog - General Excellence (Gold) Career Management
• Blog - Analysis/Commentary (Gold) Career Management
• Blog - Analysis/Commentary (Silver) Tech Sanity Check
• Blog - How-To/Tips/Service (Gold) Microsoft Windows
• E-Newsletter - General Excellence (Gold) 10 Things newsletter
• E-newsletter - Tips/How-To/Service Journalism (Silver) Microsoft Office newsletter
• Slide Show (Silver) Cracking Open the Apple iPhone 3G
• Video - Step-by-Step/How To (Gold) Find and delete hidden Windows Vista and XP device drivers

TechRepublic was also one of four finalists (along with BusinessWeek, CIO, and InfoWorld) for the big prize, the 2009 Website of the Year award. BusinessWeek was the ultimate winner, and the rest of us were awarded Honorable Mentions as finalists.

Congratulations to BusinessWeek for its well-deserved honor and to all of the 2009 Digital Azbee winners. The judges for these awards are B2B editors from publications across the country, and it’s always very gratifying to be singled out by your peers for outstanding work.

I also have to send thanks and congratulations to all of the TechRepublic editors. I’m thrilled to see that the industry has recognized them for the outstanding work they do every day to produce some the Web’s most useful tips, tutorials, and advice for IT professionals.

Last but certainly not least, I must give a shout-out to the loyal members of the TechRepublic community. The fact that you show up and engage the TechRepublic staff, contributors, and the IT world in quality conversations is what makes TechRepublic so valuable.

The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan. Larry is on vacation this week so there are two guests, Bill Detwiler, Head Technology Editor for TechRepublic, and Andrew Nusca, an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

You can play this 25-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Download the MP3 file

Stories discussed in this episode:

• With Motorola Droid, Verizon puts doubts about Google Android platform to rest (ZDNet)
• Verizon Droid: Doesn’t match iPhone, but brings Android out of beta (TechRepublic)
• Five interesting details about the new Verizon Droid smartphone (TechRepublic)
• What’s new in Android 2.0? (ZDNet)
• Can Droid mask iPhone envy? Or will Verizon iPhone rumors keep users guessing? (ZDNet)
• Will Droid do damage to the iPhone’s mojo? (ZDNet)

For those of you who prefer text over video, you can click the “Transcript” link underneath the video or you can read the original article from Deb Shinder that this episode was based on: 10 ways IT departments waste money.

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At the end of 2008, I realized something disturbing. I had not read a single book cover-to-cover during the entire year. I love to read, so that was pretty surprising, but there were a number of reasons for it. Between long hours at the day job and two young kids, I don’t have a whole lot of extended stretches of time for reading.

The only long stretches I get are usually on airplane rides, and since I try to travel as light as possible I usually don’t carry books with me on the road. Instead, I typically spend my flight time listening to audiobooks and podcasts. So, in one sense, I had still been consuming books. I was just listening to them instead of reading them.

When the second generation Amazon Kindle was released earlier this year and TechRepublic got one of the devices, I decided to give it an extended test run to see if it would change my reading habits. In my first six months with the device, I read four books. So the answer was a resounding, “yes,” but there was one big surprise that will have repercussions for any geek who is interested in buying a Kindle for themselves or giving one as a gift this holiday season.

You can find all of our reviews of this year’s best geek gifts on the Geek Gifts 2009 page.

Product features

• Price: $259
• Screen: 6″ diagonal E ink display
• Dimensions: 8″(h) x 5.3″(w) x 0.36″(d) inches
• Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Storage: 2GB (1.4GB useable), up to 1,500 books
• Network: Whispernet 3G wireless with no fees and global roaming
• Power: Micro-USB connector (USB 2.0) connects to computer or power adapter
• Audio: 3.5mm stereo audio jack
• Content formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (AAX), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; Through conversion (with a fee): PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.
• QWERTY keyboard (for making book notes and searching the store)
• Text-to-Speech (on some titles)
• Non-removable battery

What I like

The thing that made the biggest difference for me was the portability of the Kindle. It is thin and light and easy to stow in a small bag. To save back strain, I like to keep my briefcase as light as possible, since it’s already weighed down with a laptop and other electronics accessories, so I don’t like sticking books in there. However, since the Kindle is less than a pound and has a very small charger, it has a minimal impact on the weight of the bag.

The other killer feature for the Kindle is the wireless book store over the Whispernet, a free cellular Internet connection that allows you to browse for books and then purchase and download them over-the-air in a matter of minutes. I also really like that you can download a sample chapter from any of the books in the store in order to try-before-you-buy.

Other things I like:

• The battery life is terrific. You can go several days without having to recharge.
• Not having to pay for the wireless connection is a plus, although I suspect it’s one of the things that drives up the price tag of the device.
• International roaming is a great feature. Here’s the coverage map.
• The online library backup provides ease of mind. If you ever lose your Kindle or accidentally delete a book, there’s a copy stored on the Amazon servers so you can re-download it.
• The E Ink screen produces less eye strain than an LCD screen and it’s easier to read in full sunlight.
• The bookmarking and notes are nice, especially for work reading more than pleasure reading.

The other thing that I need to add about the Kindle is that my reading really sky-rocketed once I discovered the Kindle app for the iPhone / iPod Touch. Initially, when I heard about the Kindle app, I thought, “Why would I want to read a book on that little screen?”

However, I installed the app and tried it. At first I just started using it when I had a few moments to spare, such as waiting in line at a store or in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, etc. Then I quickly realized that I was reading a lot more on the iPhone app than the Kindle itself. I didn’t mind the small screen at all, and the fact that my phone is with me all the time made it really easy for me to read a few minutes here and there. I also stopped carrying the Kindle on the road and used the Kindle iPhone app while I was traveling.

What I don’t like

There are a few big drawbacks to the Kindle. First, all of the books that you buy are currently locked into the Amazon ecosystem. You can only use them on a Kindle e-reader, a Kindle mobile app, or the new Kindle PC app. With lots of new e-readers from Sony, Barnes & Noble, Plastic Logic, and others about to hit the market in 2010, this will become even more of an issue as readers feel locked into Kindle because that’s where all of their content is. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said that Amazon will eventually split the e-reader and e-book businesses so that Amazon devices will handle multiple document formats and Amazon’s e-books will be portable across different platforms and competing devices. However, we haven’t seen that materialize yet.

Something else to keep in mind about the Kindle is that not all books are available as Kindle e-books. There are currently over 350,000 titles available, but once you start using the Kindle you’ll inevitably run into times where a book that you’d really like to download to your Kindle for your next trip is not available as an e-book.

The other problem is the price. $259 is a lot to spend on a single-function device like an e-reader. These devices really feel like they should cost around $100 or less.

Geek bottom line

If you are looking for a gift that has tech credentials and the recipient is an avid reader, the Kindle 2 can be an awesome choice. The ability to have a whole library of books in a thin electronic reader is very appealing. Plus, you can decide you want to read a new book and purchase and download it within minutes. The reading experience on the E Ink screen is also very good. It won’t satisfy those who love the smell and feel of paper books, but everyone else will be thankful not to have to mess with big paper tomes.

The one thing to consider is that if this gift is for someone who is more of a casual reader and is also a music and media lover, then it might make more sense to get an iPod Touch. You can get the 8GB version for $199, plus a $25 Amazon gift certificate for buying e-books for the Kindle app and a $25 iTunes gift certificate for buying music, videos, and apps. At that point, you’ll still come out at $249, $10 cheaper than the Kindle 2 itself.

The one thing you can’t do on the iPod Touch Kindle app that you can only do on the Kindle 2 device is read electronic versions of newspapers, like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. If the gift is for someone who would also enjoy reading the daily newspaper electronically (automatically delivered every morning) then the Kindle 2 device is a stronger choice.

Geek Gift score (out of 5)

• Fun factor: 4
• Geek factor: 4
• Value: 3
• Overall: 4

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Verizon has blitzed the airwaves with ads that extol the benefits of the new Droid smartphone and fires shots at the Apple iPhone. So it’s time for TechRepublic’s review of the Droid, and naturally we’ll do plenty of comparisons between the Droid and the iPhone, since that’s one of the big questions hanging out there.

Read more field-tested reviews of hardware and software in TechRepublic’s Product Spotlight blog and subscribe to the Product Spotlight newsletter (automatically sign up with one click).

Specifications

• Carrier: Verizon Wireless
• Manufacturer: Motorola
• Operating system: Google Android 2.0
• Processor: 550MHz Cortex-A8
• RAM: 256MB
• Storage: 16GB microSD included; upgradeable to 32GB+
• Display: 3.7″ 854×480 WVGA, capacitive touchscreen, 400K pixels, 16 million colors
• Battery life: Talktime: 385 mins / 6.4 hrs; Standby: 270 hrs / 11.25 days
• Weight: 169g / 5.96oz
• Dimensions: 4.56(h) x 2.36(w) x0.54(d) inches
• Keyboard: Slide-out landscape qwerty; on-screen portrait and landscape keyboards
• Camera: 5.0 megapixel, auto-focus, dual LED flash
• Networks: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, 800/1900MHz CDMA EVDO rev A
• Tethered modem capability: No tethering at launch, but Verizon has promised to add it
• Price: $199 ($299 with a $100 mail-in rebate)
• CNET’s unboxing the Verizon Droid
• Photos of the Verizon Droid

Who is it for?

We should consider the Droid a converged smartphone - one that’s meant to combine business and personal functions on one device. That means it can appeal to business users, who would use it primarily for Exchange access but might also want to occasionally do some personal stuff, and also consumers, who would buy the phone for its Gmail, Web, and multimedia capabilities while also using it to occasionally check up on their messages and calendar from work.

The Exchange ActiveSync integration is basically the same as what you get on the iPhone, although the iPhone also has some enterprise application capabilities from Apple and some third party security and management solutions that can make it more palatable in an enterprise environment. The Android platform is missing these add-ons for now and that makes it less likely that you’ll see many companies deploying Android phones like the Verizon Droid. But, I also expect more enterprise development out of the Android platform over the next couple years, now that it has Exchange ActiveSync support.

The other thing to keep in mind about the Droid is that it is not quite as user-friendly as the iPhone, as we’ll discuss more in a moment. This is still a smartphone for the tech enthusiast more than the average worker. For example, the Droid will definitely appeal to Linux zealots who have been waiting for a good Android phone that they can champion, since Android is based on Linux.

What problems does it solve?

The Verizon Droid is the first device to have Google’s new Android 2.0 OS. It’s also the first Android device to use a powerful next-generation mobile processor - the Cortex-A8 in this case. The combination of those two factors make this Android-based smartphone far faster and more responsive than previous Android phones, which often felt slow and clunky.

The first Android phone, the G1 from HTC and T-Mobile, was a mess - even more so than the first generation iPhone (which wasn’t that great either). While the Droid is actually very similar to the G1 in form factor, it is a much a better executed product that appeal to a lot more users.

The other thing that the Droid has going for it is that the Android OS is an open platform. Anyone can develop applications for it, unlike the iPhone in which all installed applications must be approved by Apple before they appear in the App Store.

Standout features

• Excellent hardware - Motorola has a history of building thin, powerful cell phones, but the company has gone a long time without a hit. The Droid looks like it will break the slump. This is a terrific piece of hardware. It has a very quick CPU. The high resolution screen makes colors and details stand out. The slim slide-out keyboard is very comfortable. And, the camera is 5 megapixels with a dual LED flash. All of those features come in a very slim, sturdy form factor that has some nice weight to it. The Droid does not have the plastic feel of the Palm Pre or the iPhone 3GS. It feels more substantial, although that also makes it a littler heavier, too.
• Functional Web browsing - Browsing the Internet on a mobile phone still leaves a lot to be desired on most platforms. Pages tend to load slow and awkwardly when they load at all. The only real functional mobile browsing experience is on the iPhone, and to a lesser extent, on the Palm Pre. The Droid, with its strong CPU and high-res screen and Android 2.0 software, joins that club. It’s not quite as snappy as the iPhone and the interface isn’t as precise (you don’t pinch to zoom, you double-tap), but it still offers a very good Web browsing experience.
• Email management - As you’d expect because of the Google underpinnings, the Droid offers a great experience with Gmail. It offers full “push” messaging and makes it easy to star, delete, reply, forward, and select multiple messages. It extends this same experience to corporate email as well, with the new Exchange ActiveSync functionality. The mail interface has its own unique UI that mirrors Gmail on the Web in many ways, but it’s easy to use and I think most people will take to it pretty quickly. My only complaint is that the mail folders (and sub-folders) load pretty slow the first time you access them.
• Contact management - One place where the Droid really shines is in its unified address book. With your permission, it can pull in your contacts from Facebook, Gmail, and Exchange, and then reconcile the duplicate entries. All in all, this feature works pretty well. Here, Android has taken a page out of Palm’s book, as the webOS offers a similar feature. And, also like the Palm webOS, Android offers a unified inbox view as well.

What’s wrong?

• It’s still early for apps - At the time of the Droid launch on Nov. 6, Android will have about 10,000 applications for its platform. Meanwhile, the iPhone recently passed 100,000 apps. I expect that the Android application ecosystem will grow significantly after the Droid launch, since Verizon is hyping it so much, since lots of other Android phones are hitting the market in Q4, and since many of the developers who are having a hard time getting noticed on the iPhone platform may view Android as a greener field to launch new apps. In addition to not having as many apps as the iPhone, most of the current Android apps feel very raw and unpolished. Only time will tell whether that is due to the 1.0 nature of these apps or if Android has deficiencies as an app development platform.
• UI and navigation - This is going to sound a little nit-picky, because overall the Droid user interface is pretty good. It’s a huge improvement over the first generation Android OS and it’s better than what you get on Windows Mobile and Symbian, by comparison. Nevertheless, the Android UI just isn’t as user-friendly as the iPhone. While the iPhone requires virtually no user manual because of the locked-down simplicity of the interface, Droid is much more customizable and has many more options. That naturally makes it more challenging to use and requires some learning to figure out how things work and why. The other issue here is that the Droid UI just isn’t as smooth and responsive as the iPhone, although it’s much better than Android 1.0 devices. Still, there are times when you have to tap things more than once or you end up in unfamiliar menus or programs because the screen didn’t correctly understand your gesture.
• Lack of global roaming - The Droid is limited to CDMA, so it’s not a true global roaming device. That will be a game-breaker for some business users.
• Over-hyped - The other thing that could ultimately hurt the Droid is that Verizon is overhyping it with a massive ad campaign, and in many of those ads Verizon targets the iPhone specifically with a bunch of technical jargon about maps, widgets, and open platforms. Most users don’t care about that stuff, only hardcore techies do.

Competitive products

• Apple iPhone 3GS
• Palm Pre
• BlackBerry Storm 2
• T-Mobile MyTouch 3G
• BlackBerry Tour
• HTC Imagio

Bottom line for business

There’s a lot more to like about the Verizon Droid than there is to dislike. It’s a solid device and I think a lot of users will be happy with it - certainly happier than with a Windows Mobile or a Symbian smartphone. The integration of Exchange ActiveSync immediately opens a lot of doors for business users to get onboard.

Because of the importance of the UI and the application platform, the Droid does not quite measure up to the iPhone. But, it comes closer than just about any other device, except maybe the Palm Pre. I don’t think there will be many people leaving the iPhone and jumping to the Droid - even if they do want to move from AT&T to the stronger Verizon network. And, if they do they will likely be a little disappointed by having to downgrade their app experience in going from iPhone to Droid.

However, I do expect that the Droid will stem the tide of Verizon customers leaving the fold to get an iPhone. And, I think this will be remembered as the device that got Android in the game.

User rating

Based on what you’ve seen, how would rate the Verizon Droid? Rate the device and compare the results to what other TechRepublic members think. You can also give your own personal review of the Verizon Droid in the discussion thread below.

“I wish there was an easy way for you to simply push a button and add all 100 people on this list to your ‘following’ list on Twitter. Unfortunately, there’s not. So you will need to go to the Twitter profile of each person you’re interested in following. This is something that Twitter needs to improve. It needs a group or list feature so that people can set up lists like this and users can then follow the entire list with a single click.”

Now Twitter has come through with an official Lists feature and the execution of this idea is even better than I expected. You can make lists of users for any purpose, such as friends, CEOs, newspapers, really-smart-people, etc. Then you can easily add any Twitter users to that list, since Twitter has added a list button to almost every place that you see a user name so that you can click it and add that person to any of your lists by clicking a checkbox (see below).

Once you have your lists set up, they show up in the right column and you can click them at any time to see only the posts from the users on that list. What’s nice about that is that there may be Twitter users that you don’t necessarily want to follow in your main Twitter stream, but you’d like to keep track of their posts in a specialized list. For example, you might want to have the Twitter feeds for news organizations like CNN, CBS, and New York Times aggregated into a news list.

You also have the choice to make your lists private or public. If they are private then only you see them and use them. If they are public, then others can subscribe to the lists and the lists show up in their group of lists in the right column.

Keep in mind that when you follow a list, all of the people in that list are NOT automatically added to the list of people that you follow. Instead, that list is simply added to your lists in the right column. I like that approach. You can always add individual users that you discover as useful Twitterers from your lists.

The lists also get their own unique URLs (twitter.com/username/listname). For example, below is the link to my list of 100 tech experts on Twitter (named “tech100″) and my list of TechRepublic editors and writers on Twitter:

• http://twitter.com/jasonhiner/tech100
• http://twitter.com/jasonhiner/techrepublic

On Twitter, you can also use @jasonhiner/tech100 as a shorthand to refer to a list and it will automatically get linked.

Another aspect of the Lists feature that I really like is that you can go to any user and see the lists that the person follows and all of the lists that include that person (see below).

There are two improvements I’d like to see for Twitter Lists. First, it would be great if there could be a 140-character description of a Twitter List to help others understand the purpose and contents of the lists. Second, it would still be nice if you could click one button and follow everyone on a list, as an option.

1. Will cost $199, available on Nov. 6

Verizon has set the price of the Droid at $199, the same price as the 16GB iPhone (the 32GB iPhone costs $299). The Droid comes with a 16GB memory card. But the user can pop that out and upgrade to 32GB themselves, if they choose.

2. HTML5 and hi-res Web experience

Droid has an HTML5 Webkit browser, compared to HTML4.1 on the iPhone and the Pre. The Droid features an 854×480 screen — compared to 480×320 on the iPhone — and so the screen will show about twice as many pixels as the iPhone (of course it will be much smaller on the screen). The image below (a slide from Haller’s presentation) shows how much more of a Web page you’ll be able to see on the Droid versus the iPhone.

3. Exchange push support

Verizon officially revealed that the Droid will have built-in support for Microsoft Exchange messaging, including push capability for email, calendars, and contacts. Since it’s still mostly business people that are buying smartphones, this is critical — and it was missing from the G1, the first Android smartphone.

4. Voice-activated search

Another feature that Verizon touted was Google-powered voice search. Haller described the Droid as a “true search monster.” He said,  ”One button, talk to the phone and you’ll find what you’re looking for… The voice service works very well.”

5. Verizon isn’t closing the door on the iPhone

Verizon’s ad campaign for Droid has almost exclusively been aimed at the iPhone (and Halller confirmed that more ads are coming), but that doesn’t mean that the door is closed on the iPhone coming to Verizon. Haller said, “We continue to talk to more manufacturers, including Apple. We’d love to have to the iPhone.”

Other details, based on Haller comments:

• Wi-Fi is included (unlike other high-end Verizon smartphones)
• Verizon won’t load a bunch of its own software on the Droid. ”The only thing we’re going to load on here is visual voicemail.”
• The hi-res screen will do “DVD-quality video”
• Has 550MHz Cortex-8 processor
• It’s an ounce heavier than the iPhone
• Haller called it the “thinnest qwerty slider in the world”
• Verizon does not expect to have any capacity problems like AT&T has seen with the iPhone. ”We’ve literally spent millions of dollars nationwide to increase our capacity,” said Haller. “We’ve put ourselves in a very favorable position for data capacity.”

Later on Wednesday at the press kick-off event in New York, I got a live demo of the Droid and I received a review unit from Verizon. My personal observations and a full review of the Droid will be forthcoming.

For those of you who prefer text over video, you can click the “Transcript” link underneath the video or you can read the original article from Bob Artner that this episode was based on: 10+ questions to help determine how well you’re performing as an IT manager.

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Google has gotten much more aggressive about expanding beyond Web search in 2009. The area where Google is placing its biggest bet is in business applications, a traditional Microsoft stronghold with Exchange on the server side and Microsoft Office on the client side.

Google is making the pitch to businesses that it can save them money, speed up deployments, and provide users with a simpler experience. The search giant has launched a its “Go Google” ad campaign and trotted out the University of Notre Dame and the City of Los Angeles as examples of two big organizations that have made the move to Google Apps.

The primary obstacle Google has to overcome is to convince IT leaders to transfer company data from internal servers to the Google data centers, with all of the security, privacy, and compliance risks that such a move entails. So this type of decision really comes down to trust. Do CIOs trust Google?

We decided to examine that question. On October 20, TechRepublic polled its 90-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Who do trust more as a technology partner, Microsoft or Google?” The jury - made up of the first 12 respondents - voted 8-4 in favor of Microsoft.

The CIO Jury for this verdict was:

1. Chuck Codling, Director of Infrastructure for Rocky Brands, Inc.
2. Chuck Musciano, CIO of Martin Marietta Materials
3. Jeff Relkin, Director of IT for Quadel
4. Jeanne DeVore, Head of IT for Chicago Shakespeare Theater
5. Brian Stanek, VP of IT for NAMICO
6. Michael Hanken, VP of IT for Multiquip Inc.
7. David Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group
8. Ingo Dean, IT Director of EastWest Institute
9. Brian Terry, VP of IT for Constitution Corporate Federal Credit Union
10. Olaf Lund, Director of IT for Lincoln Financial Media
11. Jeff Cannon, CIO of Fire and Life Safety America
12. Michael Stoyanovich, CIO of BeneSys, Inc

TechRepublic’s CIO Jury is based on the original CIO Jury concept developed by Silicon.com, where you can find lively opinions from IT leaders based in the UK.

The skeptical attitude toward Google was best summed up by Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College, who wrote, “There seems to be some conventional wisdom that Google is the answer to what’s been wrong over the years in the Microsoft universe. That kind of thinking may be dangerous. As consumers of technology we need to keep each and every business partner honest and working for us. Handing trust carte blanche over to Google because, as the wisdom goes, they are good citizens, seems misguided to me. If I had to pick one, it would probably be Microsoft because they have withstood the scrutiny their misdeeds have landed them. Google remains, for the most part, untested.”

When confronted with the Microsoft vs. Google question of trust, Lance Taylor-Warren, CIO of H.A.W.C. Community Health Centers, said, “Neither. While some of the technology that Google has been releasing is intriguing, their track record of leaving things in ‘beta’ for years does [not] lead to a [high] level of confidence.  Microsoft is Microsoft. If I had to pay full price for their products (i.e. we did not have access to non-profit donation pricing), I would have to give serious consideration to other solutions.”

Below are additional quotes from TechRepublic’s panel of IT leaders - beyond just the 12 on the jury - who responded to the Microsoft vs. Google question. I’ve divided them up into the two camps, the ones who trust Microsoft more and the ones who prefer Google.

Microsoft: The devil you know

• “Microsoft. Mostly a case of the devil whose enterprise business model you know, versus the devil you don’t.” (Patrick Gray, President of Prevoyance Group)
• “Microsoft, hands down. They have a real enterprise track record and, while not always perfect, they continue to deliver on real business needs and their products eventually exit the beta stage.” (Scott Lowe, CIO of Westminster College)
• “Google seems to be moving too fast into too many areas. I don’t think they really have a focus on security and trust. Microsoft learned that lesson in a most painful manner. Google seems to have the same irreverence that Microsoft had in their earlier days.” (Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating)
• “Microsoft is an important business partner of higher education and tends to offer very reasonable pricing for higher-ed institutions and higher-ed students. While commercial enterprise may be subsidizing those higher-ed discounts, Microsoft also invests heavily in communicating their technology roadmaps which facilitates planning. Also, Microsoft’s products move from beta to production more quickly. Google and Apple are both providing great products and a great deal of competition with Microsoft in many areas, and we all benefit from that.” (Chuck Elliott, Director of IT for Emory University School of Medicine)
• “Microsoft. Google, to me, tends to be intrusive and to urge the consolidation of data in remote locations, often before such a move is proven safe or secure. Microsoft just wants our money.” (David Wilson, Director of IT for VectorCSP)
• “Microsoft. We are not, nor will we be in the foreseeable future, involved in the ‘cloud’ as an integral part of our internal IT offerings.” (David Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group)

Google: More open, more hungry

• “Google. Because between the two, so far, Google hasn’t screwed me with ‘comply or die’ campaigns and there seems, for now, to be an effort on cross platform compatibility on Google’s part, whereas Microsoft wants to be all or nothing.” (Martin Szalay, Director of IT for FWE Co)
• “Google. They’re more hungry.” (James Riner, CIO for R and R Images)

Further reading:

• Google’s campaign for Apps doesn’t address the IT data elephant in the room (ZDNet)
• The promise of Google Apps includes a shrinking IT staff (Ars Technica)
• Google Apps campaign: How not to influence IT experts (RedWriteWeb)
• “Go Google” billboard campaign (OAAA.org)
• Gone Google - Google Apps billboards (YouTube)

Would you like to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury and have your say in the hottest issues for IT departments? If you are a CIO, CTO, IT director or equivalent at a large or small company in the private or public sector and you want to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury pool, drop us a line at ciojury@techrepublic.com.

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One of the easiest levers for CIOs to pull when they need to save money in the IT budget is to push off the purchase of new hardware from one budget cycle to the next. And, the biggest hardware lever to pull is typically the one for new desktop and laptop PCs for end users, because of the sheer scale involved.

On October 6, TechRepublic polled its 90-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Has your IT department done anything to delay its PC refresh cycle in 2009?” The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, came through with three only “Yes” votes and nine “No” votes.

It was a surprise that this number wasn’t higher, since U.S. organizations have been under intense budget pressure in 2009 from the stagnant economic climate. The fact that only 25% of the jury reported a delay in PC upgrades could also mean that some of them have already used this lever in the last couple years and can’t keep doing it indefinitely, or it could mean that many of them don’t have a strict policy for refreshing end user PCs. However, as you’ll see in the comments below, it also means that there are a bunch of IT departments that are reconsidering how they handle PC deployments altogether.

TechRepublic’s CIO Jury is based on the original CIO Jury concept developed by Silicon.com, where you can find lively opinions from IT leaders based in the UK.

The CIO Jury on this topic was:

1. Chuck Musciano, CIO of Martin Marietta Materials
2. Kurt Schmidt, IT Director of Capital Credit Union
3. Joel Robertson, Director of IT for King College
4. Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating
5. Michael Spears, CIO for National Council on Compensation Insurance
6. Lisa Moorehead, Director of IT for MA Dept of Public Utilities
7. Russ Strassburg, VP of IS for Ramco-Gershenson
8. David L. Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group
9. Mark Westhoff, Director of IT for Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District
10. Laurie Dale, Director of IT for Ability Beyond Disabilty
11. Tom Gainer, CIO of FirstBank Southwest
12. Bob Hickcox, Director of IT for Girl Scouts of MN and WI

Beyond just the 12 members of this week’s jury, other members of TechRepublic’s CIO panel also responded with comments on this issue. Below is a selection of those comments, divided between the Yes and No camps:

Yes

• “Yes, but this is a part of a broader effort to rethink how we handle desktop computing.” (Scott Lowe, CIO of Westminster College)
• “We skipped the PC refresh cycle for our fiscal year just ended (09/30). We are selectively delaying for the new fiscal year. However, we are re-imaging machines, adding RAM, upgrading video cards to try to squeeze another year out of the PCs.” (Jeff Cannon, CIO of Fire and Life Safety America)
• “We have deferred until next year and in the process of switching to thin clients.” (Jay Rollins, VP of IT for Trilogy Health Services)
• “Yes.  We are in the early stages of virtualizing desktops.” (Randy Krzyston, Director of IT for Thomas Jefferson School of Law)
• “Yes, we are pushing workstation refresh back to allow for more funds to be spent on virtualization and server consolidation.” (Lance Taylor-Warren, CIO of H.A.W.C. Community Health Centers)
• “Yes, we’re upgrading components instead of replacing machines.” (Jeanne DeVore, Head of IT for Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
• “We have put off plans to do the 1/3 replacement due to budget constraints.” (Olaf Lund, Director of IT for Lincoln Financial Media)
• “We have fixed a lot more hardware than ever before to stretch the money.” (Michael Hanken, VP of IT for Multiquip Inc.)
• “Yes. We’ve added memory to all systems in order to better handle the newer software releases.” (Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating)
• “We have cancelled our refresh cycle. We are currently replacing internal hardware as required, and only purchasing new systems as a last resort.” (Adam Bertram, IT Director for McKendree Village)
• “Yes, specifically for engineering workstations.  Instead of purchasing the latest workstations for the department we have just upgraded memory to the max, put fresh loads of XP Pro x64, and new processor on a select few.  With these cheap boosts and a fresh OS it’s like a brand new machine.  Subsequently we are able to put off a $50,000 plus purchase, for that department, for another 18 months or so.” (Martin Szalay, Director of IT for FWE Co)
• “Yes. With economic conditions sliding down and budgets being cut we decided to hold off from refreshing PCs in 2009. The Vista debacle only solidified our resolve to wait and hold on for another year with our XP implementation…with hope for Windows 7.” (Michael Woodford, Executive Director of IT for USANA Health Sciences, Inc.)
• “Yes, we pushed from a 3-year plan in 2008 to 4-year in 2009.  We then further delayed to late 2009 to minimize depreciation in this year. We are about to make the purchase now.” (Michael Spears, CIO for NCCI)

No

• “No delay. In fact, this year we are replacing every PC in the organization (most were Pentium IIIs) with new dual core machines for staff and quad core for management. All running WinXP.” (John Gracyalny, Director of IT for SafeAmerica Credit Union)
• “No. We actually just made a refresh to include upgrade licenses to Windows 7.” (Thomas Galbraith, Director of IT for US District Court So District of IL)
• “Not in 2009, but we are looking to extend in 2010. We are not going to be proactive in replacements as we have in the past and instead will wait until for a support call to generate a replacement request.” (Kevin, Leypoldt, IS Director for Structural Integrity Associates)
• “No. Our business depends on timing, deliverable data, and efficiency. It would not save money, in the end, to delay refreshing older machines.” (David Wilson, Director of IT for VectorCSP)
• “We have not done anything to delay our PC refresh cycle. We are on track to replace one quarter of our desktop PCs this year as we have in past years. Of course, we are in higher education and our enrollments this year are solid. Our business cycles tend to be contrarian. When unemployment rises, colleges see increased enrollments.” (Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College)
• “Our environment is evolving to either virtualization or thin client and the need to refresh PCs and laptops is becoming less important.” (Dave Schartel, Director of IT for Home Health Care Management, Inc.)
• “No. All equipment is leased so we see no cost benefit savings by delaying the refresh.” (Lisa Moorehead, Director of IT for MA Dept of Public Utilities)
• “No, but then again we weren’t scheduled for a refresh this year.” (Michael Foerst, CIO for Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance)
• “No, we’re actually in the process of creating a PC refresh cycle. We haven’t had one until now.” (David Van Geest, Director of IT for The Orsini Group)

Would you like to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury and have your say in the hottest issues for IT departments? If you are a CIO, CTO, IT director or equivalent at a large or small company in the private or public sector and you want to be part of TechRepublic’s CIO Jury pool, drop us a line at ciojury@techrepublic.com.