It seems every major tech giant is celebrating a landmark birthday these days. This year, it’s been Microsoft (35), Cisco Systems (25) and Yahoo (15). Next year, IBM turns a century old, and Apple hits 35.
Some have more reason to celebrate than others. While some have matured, tech’s latest waves have others gasping to keep up.
In this ever-changing landscape, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.com have grown stronger, and Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Intel forge ahead, according to numerous tech analysts, executives and venture capitalists.
Meanwhile, the fortunes of Yahoo, AOL, MySpace and eBay are less clear, a consequence of missed marketing opportunities, lack of innovation or something else. The debate rages over Microsoft, good and bad.
Rapid change has been a staple in tech for decades, but the pace of today’s market — accelerated by explosive growth in the mobile, social-media and so-called cloud-computing segments — presents as many risks as opportunities.
USA TODAY asked more than a dozen high-profile CEOs, over several months, to reflect on this slice of time and to handicap who is best positioned to adapt and prosper. Though their opinions vary widely, they agree the tech industry dictates that they relentlessly innovate, revamp business plans every few months or acquire key technologies.
“When the world is moving and changing so fast, the worst risk is to do nothing,” says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The competitive treadmill moves so fast, MySpace co-President Jason Hirschhorn says, an executive team needs a “level of insecurity.”
His concerns are borne out in a recent report by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, dubbed the “Queen of the Net.” She posits that tech is in the midst of its fifth major cycle. Mainframe computers dominated the 1950s and ’60s, mini-computers the 1970s, desktop PCs the ’80s and the Internet the ’90s.
The current cycle is the mobile…